Dell has been on something of a roll when it comes to launching new monitor models this year and its latest addition is an office focused curved 34-inch model with a 3440x1440 resolution. The S3423DWC as the model is called, sports a VA panel with a 300 cd/m² brightness, a 3000:1 contrast ratio and a colour gamut capable of 99 percent of the sRGB colour space. Although it's an office focused display, the good news here is that it has 100 Hz refresh rate and a 4 ms response time, which is quite unusual for its target market. AMD FreeSync is also supported, although there's no mention of the frequency range.

Connectivity-wise the main selling point is its single USB-C port that also has support for DP 1.4 Alt Mode as well as USB PD up to 65 W. Furthermore it has two HDMI 2.0 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-B input and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, of which one can deliver 10 W of power for charging. Thanks to the two USB inputs, the display can function as a KVM and it also supports Picture-by-Picture and Picture-in-Picture when more than one input is being used. Dell also integrated a pair of 5 W speakers, but it seems like audio input is only via HDMI or USB, as the 3.5 mm jack on the rear of the display is apparently only for audio output. The stand is height adjustable, but due to this being an ultra-widescreen display, it can't be rotated. Dell claims that the plastic used contains at least 25 percent recycled materials. The S3423DWC is available in the APAC region now, although the US and European retail price should be around US$/€689 once it launches there.

Dell has launched a pair of very similar looking 32-inch gaming monitors, but looks can be deceiving as they say. The two models are the G3223Q and G3223D, with the G3223Q sporting a 4K 144 Hz Fast IPS panel, with the G3223D also using a Fast IPS panel, but dropping the resolution to 2560 x 1440 while upping the refresh rate to 165 Hz. The G3223D is only rated for HDR 400, while the G3223Q gets HDR 600 support, although both appear to be edge-lit panels. Other common features include a 1 ms response time (grey-to-grey), a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and a 95 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Both monitors support AMD FreeSync, but the G3223D is also NVIDIA G-Sync certified. As far as connectivity goes, the G3223D offers a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports, a DP 1.4 port, a USB-C port with DP-Alt mode and 15 W power delivery, as well as two downstreams USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The G3223Q on the other hand has a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports, one DP 1.4 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-B port, as well as two downstreams USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and a headphone jack. Both displays come with stands that support height, swivel and tilt adjustment. Dell is asking for US$719.99 for the G3223D, which is available from today in most markets and US$1,099.99 for the G3223Q which will be available at the end of this month in most markets.

As an industry leader in the premium display market, Samsung Display today announced that its QD (Quantum Dot)-Display, a display suited for a variety of consumer needs, received two additional certifications for Pro Gaming Verified and Eye Care Display. Awarded by SGS, the world-leading certification company, QD-Display received high marks for its outstanding image quality and viewing experience for games and high-definition content, while simultaneously reducing eye stress and fatigue. Previously, the QD-Display received three certifications for its True Color Tones, Pure RGB Luminance and Ultrawide Viewing Angle.

Through the SGS evaluation, the QD-Display received the highest rating level, Platinum, in Pro Gaming Verified in reflectance, refresh rate, viewing angle, Halo (light leakage) and color. QD-Display offers a fast 0.1 ms response speed (Gray to Gray). Additionally, through the certification processes, the QD-Display was proven to achieve a 0.01 ms response speed (Black to White), and a refresh rate of 175 Hz for monitors and 144 Hz for TVs. Unlike conventional LCD displays, QD-Displays do not have a delay time due to the movement of liquid crystals, since each pixel can be individually adjusted to provide the sharpest image quality possible. Therefore, the QD-Display offers faster screen transitions and clearer picture quality, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in high-resolution games.

Dell has revealed a pair of new 4K UltraSharp Screens using LG Display's IPS Black technology, which is said to deliver 35 percent deeper blacks than current IPS displays. Even though that is the headline feature, it might actually be the least interesting aspect of the 27-inch U2723QE and 32-inch U3223QE displays, as they pack a host of other useful features, as long as you're looking for a new productivity monitor.

Both models pack a six-port USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) USB hub, with the main USB-C upstreams port being capable of delivering 90 Watts of power over USB-PD, as well as supporting DP 1.4 Alt Mode. The USB hub also works in KVM mode, which seems to be becoming a standard feature on a lot of higher-end displays these days. The single downstreams USB 3.2 Gen 2 port is limited to a mere 15 W and there's also a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 upstream port that is only for USB data signals. Traditional display inputs include an HDMI port, presumably of the 2.0 variety, a DP 1.4 input, as well as an output for display daisy chaining, a feature we don't see too often on non Dell displays. Finally there's an RJ45 for hardwired network of a "docked" notebook, plus a 3.5 mm audio jack for audio output.

It's no coincidence the new XPS 13 Plus is our most powerful yet, considering it was inspired by Gen-Z - a group that knows who they are, where they want to go and demands the horsepower they need to get there. Modern and stylish, yet approachable and efficient - simple and intentional are the new definition of premium. Redesigned from the ground up with more performance than ever before, the XPS 13 Plus makes it so you can do everything you love to do in style. While beautiful designs and powerful technology innovations are crucial, there's so much more beneath the surface. And when it comes to creating your own world, a better tomorrow or whatever it is you love to do, there's no better companion than the XPS 13 Plus.

Performance, design and packaging; from top to bottom, we've stripped away the unnecessary and streamlined features to deliver a complete, seamless experience. Simplified interiors make your creative experience the focus, with best-in-class edge-to-edge displays that bring your visions to life. Additionally, leading battery technology make sure you can go the distance without disruptions. And with Express Charge 2.0 that gets your laptop to about 80% battery life in less than an hour, you can quickly juice up on the fly. Oh, and did we mention it's just as light and thin? More power, without weighing you down.

The India traditional PC market (inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations) continued its growth momentum despite ongoing supply and logistical challenges. The traditional PC shipments witnessed a 30% year-over-year (YoY) growth in 3Q21 (Jul-Sep), marking the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in India, according to new data from the International Data Corporation 's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. A total of 4.5 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, making it India's biggest-ever single quarter. To put this in perspective, it is bigger than the total yearly consumer shipments in 2019, a year before the pandemic hit us. As a result, many brands also reported their biggest quarter of PC shipments.

Notebook PCs continue to dominate the overall category with more than 80% share. Enterprise and consumer demand helped the Notebook category to reach over 3 million units for the first time, and the desktop category also continued its upward momentum as it grew by 30.5% YoY in 3Q21.

The 58th annual edition of the TOP500 saw little change in the Top10. The Microsoft Azure system called Voyager-EUS2 was the only machine to shake up the top spots, claiming No. 10. Based on an AMD EPYC processor with 48 cores and 2.45GHz working together with an NVIDIA A100 GPU and 80 GB of memory, Voyager-EUS2 also utilizes a Mellanox HDR Infiniband for data transfer.

While there were no other changes to the positions of the systems in the Top10, Perlmutter at NERSC improved its performance to 70.9 Pflop/s. Housed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Perlmutter's increased performance couldn't move it from its previously held No. 5 spot.

NVIDIA today announced NVIDIA Quantum-2, the next generation of its InfiniBand networking platform, which offers the extreme performance, broad accessibility and strong security needed by cloud computing providers and supercomputing centers.

The most advanced end-to-end networking platform ever built, NVIDIA Quantum-2 is a 400 Gbps InfiniBand networking platform that consists of the NVIDIA Quantum-2 switch, the ConnectX-7 network adapter, the BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU) and all the software that supports the new architecture.

XPS is one of the most coveted brands in the PC industry, lauded for its seamless convergence of elegant design and cutting-edge technology - but there's always more to an XPS device than meets the eye. Nearly 42% larger than its predecessor (27L vs 19L), the new XPS desktop ushers in an expansive suite of next-gen performance technologies and a more robust cooling architecture, making this the most powerful XPS desktop ever made.

With heavy hitter performance cloaked by an understated minimalist design, creators, gamers and virtually anyone who wants to amplify their passions can now own a sophisticated PC with workhorse performance.

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) traditional PC market, (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) grew 12.7% YoY in 2021Q3, for a total of 24.4 million units, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). A strong commercial performance throughout the region is the main driver of this growth, offsetting a slowdown in consumer, which could not keep up with the unfavorable growth rates seen in 2020Q3.

The Western European PC market enjoyed solid growth (15.8% YoY). Desktops continued their upward trend and increased 21.8% YoY—outgrowing notebooks (+13.1%) for the first time in six quarters. Desktop growth can be attributed to strength on the commercial side, as employers look to equip and refresh their increasingly populated offices. Notebooks also saw solid commercial shipments but were stifled by component shortages, primarily in IC boards and panels.

As growing vaccination rates worldwide starting in July lead to a gradual easing of lockdowns, the overall demand for notebook computers has also experienced a corresponding slowdown, with Chromebook demand dropping by as much as 50%, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. However, factors such as a wave of replacement demand for commercial notebooks in Europe and North America due to the return to physical workplaces, as well as brands' aggressive efforts to rush out their 4Q21 shipments ahead of time due to global port congestions, became the primary drivers of notebook demand in 3Q21. Hence, annual notebook shipment for 2021 will likely reach 240 million units, a 16.4% YoY increase.

TrendForce further indicates that 4Q21 will welcome both the gradual release of new models equipped with Intel's next-gen CPUs and a wave of replacement demand for notebooks featuring Windows 11. Even so, overall notebook shipment in 4Q21 will depend on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for commercial notebooks. As vaccinations become even more widespread in 2022, pandemic-related spending is expected to decline as a result. TrendForce therefore expects global notebook shipment to decline by 7-8% YoY next year and reach approximately 220 million units, although this still represents a growth of 60 million units over the shipment volume for 2019, prior to the emergence of the pandemic.

Worldwide revenues for the artificial intelligence (AI) market, including software, hardware, and services, is estimated to grow 15.2% year over year in 2021 to $341.8 billion, according to the latest release of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Artificial Intelligence Tracker. The market is forecast to accelerate further in 2022 with 18.8% growth and remain on track to break the $500 billion mark by 2024. Among the three technology categories, AI Software occupied 88% of the overall AI market. However, in terms of growth, AI Hardware is estimated to grow the fastest in the next several years. From 2023 onwards, AI Services is forecast to become the fastest growing category.

Within the AI Software category, AI Applications has the lion's share at nearly 50% of revenues. In terms of growth, AI Platforms is the strongest with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.2%. The slowest will be AI System Infrastructure Software with a five-year CAGR of 14.4% while accounting for roughly 35% of all AI Software revenues. Within the AI Applications market, AI ERM is expected to grow slightly stronger than AI CRM over the next five years. Meanwhile, AI Lifecycle Software is forecast to grow the fastest among the markets within AI Platforms.

Dell has stopped selling its Alienware Aurora R10/R12 systems to customers in six US states as they cannot meet the requirements of California's Energy Consumption Tier 2 implementation. These new energy efficiency regulations which became active on July 1st in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington limit the maximum kilowatt-hour usage of select devices. The maximum power usage allowed by this regulation for new desktop systems is calculated with a base limit and incorporates various additional allowances for discrete GPUs, high-speed memory, and certain storage mediums. Dell has confirmed that select versions of their Alienware Aurora R10/R12 systems cannot meet these requirements and as a result the effected models have been removed from sale for customers in these states.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the expansion of its 5G RAN Platforms portfolio with the addition of the Qualcomm 5G DU X100 Accelerator Card. The Qualcomm 5G DU X100 is designed to enable operators and infrastructure vendors the ability to readily reap the benefits of high performance, low latency, and power efficient 5G, while accelerating the cellular ecosystem's transition towards virtualized radio access networks.

The Qualcomm 5G DU X100 is a PCIe inline accelerator card with concurrent Sub-6 GHz and mmWave baseband support which is designed to simplify 5G deployments by offering a turnkey solution for ease of deployment with O-RAN fronthaul and 5G NR layer 1 High (L1 High) processing. The PCIe card is designed to seamlessly plug into standard Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) servers to offload CPUs from latency-sensitive and compute-intensive 5G baseband functions such as demodulation, beamforming, channel coding, and Massive MIMO computation needed for high-capacity deployments. For use in public or private networks, this accelerator card aims to give carriers the ability to increase overall network capacity and fully realize the transformative potential of 5G.

At this year's International Supercomputing 2021 digital event, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) is showcasing momentum for its AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct accelerators across the High Performance Computing (HPC) industry. The company also outlined updates to the ROCm open software platform and introduced the AMD Instinct Education and Research (AIER) initiative. The latest Top500 list showcased the continued growth of AMD EPYC processors for HPC systems. AMD EPYC processors power nearly 5x more systems compared to the June 2020 list, and more than double the number of systems compared to November 2020. As well, AMD EPYC processors power half of the 58 new entries on the June 2021 list.

"High performance computing is critical to addressing the world's biggest and most important challenges," said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, data center and embedded systems group, AMD. "With our AMD EPYC processor family and Instinct accelerators, AMD continues to be the partner of choice for HPC. We are committed to enabling the performance and capabilities needed to advance scientific discoveries, break the exascale barrier, and continue driving innovation."

At the 2021 International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) Intel is showcasing how the company is extending its lead in high performance computing (HPC) with a range of technology disclosures, partnerships and customer adoptions. Intel processors are the most widely deployed compute architecture in the world's supercomputers, enabling global medical discoveries and scientific breakthroughs. Intel is announcing advances in its Xeon processor for HPC and AI as well as innovations in memory, software, exascale-class storage, and networking technologies for a range of HPC use cases.

"To maximize HPC performance we must leverage all the computer resources and technology advancements available to us," said Trish Damkroger, vice president and general manager of High Performance Computing at Intel. "Intel is the driving force behind the industry's move toward exascale computing, and the advancements we're delivering with our CPUs, XPUs, oneAPI Toolkits, exascale-class DAOS storage, and high-speed networking are pushing us closer toward that realization."

NVIDIA today announced it is turbocharging the NVIDIA HGX AI supercomputing platform with new technologies that fuse AI with high performance computing, making supercomputing more useful to a growing number of industries.

To accelerate the new era of industrial AI and HPC, NVIDIA has added three key technologies to its HGX platform: the NVIDIA A100 80 GB PCIe GPU, NVIDIA NDR 400G InfiniBand networking, and NVIDIA Magnum IO GPUDirect Storage software. Together, they provide the extreme performance to enable industrial HPC innovation.

Last week, it surfaced that Alienware shipped certain m15 gaming laptops with GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPUs with fewer CUDA cores than what is standard—4,608 vs. 5,120, without properly advertising it in their marketing material. Over the weekend, the company's train-wreck of a response played out. First, from Alienware's parent company Dell; and later by Alienware itself.

Dell, in a statement to Jarrod's Tech, tried to normalize the practice. "CUDA core counts per NVIDIA baseline may change for individual OEM, such as ourselves [Dell], to allow to provide a more specific design and performance tuning. Be assured the changes made by our engineering team for this computer model was done after careful testing and design choices to bring the most stable and best performance possible for our customers, if at a later date more CUDA cores can be unlocked via a future update, we will be swift to make it available on our support website," the Dell statement read.

One of our readers sent in evidence that their Alienware m15 gaming notebook, which comes with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop discrete GPU, has fewer CUDA cores than it should. The user ran GPU-Z to discover that their GPU has 4,608 CUDA cores, as opposed to the 5,120 that's standard for this SKU. Elsewhere on the NotebookReview forums, an Alienware m15 owner discovered that the latest video BIOS restores the CUDA core count to 5,120. The stock m15 R4 BIOS runs the GPU with 4,608 CUDA cores, whereas the R4 BIOS was shown unlocking all 5,120 CUDA cores. They comment that this could be "VBIOS tomfoolery." It is possible to disable CUDA cores (below the hardwired count) using video BIOS. Perhaps this is an oversight by Dell, which will likely be fixed with BIOS updates.Screenshots courtesy: EepoSaurus on NotebookReview forums

Today at Computex 2021, Intel announced two new additions to the lineup of 11th Gen Intel Core processors. These new processors, combined with Intel's co-engineering work with independent software vendors (ISVs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), continue Intel's leadership in mobile compute—delivering the world's best processors for thin-and-light Windows-based laptops. Intel also introduced its first 5G product for the next generation of PC experiences, Intel 5G Solution 5000, following the previously announced collaboration with MediaTek and Fibocom.

"We've taken the world's best processor for thin-and-light Windows laptops and made the experience even better with the addition of our two new 11th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics. In addition, we know real-world performance and connectivity are vital to our partners and the people who rely on PCs every day, so we're continuing that momentum with more platform capabilities and choice in the market with the launch of our first 5G product for PCs: the Intel 5G Solution 5000," said Chris Walker, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Mobility Client Platforms.

Dell notebooks and desktops dating all the way back since 2009—hundreds of millions of them the PC giant has shipped since—are vulnerable to unauthorized privilege escalation attacks, due to a faulty OEM driver the company uses to update the computer's BIOS or UEFI firmware, according to findings by cybersecurity researchers at SentinelLabs. "DBUtil," a driver that Dell machines load during automated or unattended BIOS/UEFI update processes initiated by the user from within the OS, is found to have vulnerabilities that malware can exploit to "escalate privileges from a non-administrator user to kernel mode privileges."

SentinelLabs chronicled its findings in CVE-2021-21551, which details five individual flaws. Two of these point out flaws that can escalate user privileges through controlled memory corruption, two with lack of input validation; and one with denial of service. Organizations that have remote updates enabled for their client machines are at risk, since the flaw can be exploited over network. "An attacker with access to an organization's network may also gain access to execute code on unpatched Dell systems and use this vulnerability to gain local elevation of privilege. Attackers can then leverage other techniques to pivot to the broader network, like lateral movement," writes SentielLabs in its paper.

Enterprise demand for cloud services has been rising steady in the past two years owing to the rapidly changing global markets and uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. TrendForce's investigations find that most enterprises have been prioritizing cloud service adoption across applications ranging from AI to other emerging technologies as cloud services have relatively flexible costs. Case in point, demand from clients in the hyperscale data center segment constituted more than 40% of total demand for servers in 4Q20, while this figure may potentially approach 45% for 2021. For 2021, TrendForce expects global server shipment to increase by more than 5% YoY and ODM Direct server shipment to increase by more than 15% YoY.

The PC is more than just a piece of technology - it's a gateway to your passions, your work, your play and who you are. Nothing brings you closer to the things that matter than our new Inspiron series, featuring a lineup that empowers the freedom of expression, connection, and communication with a whole lot of style. Redesigned from the ground up, our new Inspiron devices pack all the latest PC innovations that Dell has to offer to keep you connected to what matters most, adapting to your learn- or work-from-anywhere lifestyle. Minimalist, modern designs and new elemental colors inspired by nature not only complement how you work but how you live.

This isn't the Inspiron your parents remember - it's made to handle everything from connecting with friends and family for virtual happy hour, keeping up with current events in online forums to editing your latest blog entry and binging your favorite show. It comes stacked with a top-notch visual experience and Dell Mobile Connect, a feature that seamlessly connects your Android or iOS device to the PC, so you never miss a text or call. What's more, the new lineup delivers on Dell's promise to be environmentally conscious.

The global chip shortage is currently getting worse each day, starting from the tight supply of graphics cards and processors for consumers, spanning to even your internet router. Every piece of electronics now seems to be getting more expensive, as the semiconductor processors found inside them are very hard to source. The cause of that is huge demand coming from consumers, who require the latest generation of processors manufactured in overbooked semiconductor facilities like the ones from TSMC, UMC, Intel, Samsung, SMIC, etc. If manufacturers can't supply enough chips to satisfy the demand for companies that incorporate these chips in products' needs, the issue appears.

This time, we have another big player in need of more wafer capacity. Realtek, the maker of various ICs for multimedia and peripherals, is reportedly experiencing a chip shortage as well. According to the report coming from DigiTimes, the Taiwanese Realtek is fighting to keep up with the demand. The report raises concerns from laptop manufacturers like Dell, HP, and others who use Realtek's chips for various purposes in devices, like audio and LAN chips. Reportedly used in 70% of global laptop designs, Realtek's audio and LAN solutions are very much in demand. If the company cannot supply enough of those chips, manufacturers would be unable to ship products. According to the report, the delivery time of Realtek's chips has been extended to 32 weeks, which could cause massive delays with product shipments and cause some harm to the supply chain. It remains to be seen how the market responds to the extended delivery time, so we will watch it with caution.

NVIDIA today introduced a new class of NVIDIA-Certified Systems, bringing AI within reach for organizations that run their applications on industry-standard enterprise data center infrastructure. These include high-volume enterprise servers from top manufacturers, which were announced in January and are now certified to run the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software suite—which is exclusively certified for VMware vSphere 7, the world's most widely used compute virtualization platform.

Further expanding the NVIDIA-Certified servers ecosystem is a new wave of systems featuring the NVIDIA A30 GPU for mainstream AI and data analytics and the NVIDIA A10 GPU for AI-enabled graphics, virtual workstations and mixed compute and graphics workloads, also announced today.