We are delighted to introduced the brand new CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4, or TS4, offering a staggering 18 ports of connectivity in order to expand even the most demanding of workflows. This powerful new dock is available from today in the US, UK, EU, and available in the Rest of the World in Mid-March 2022. First introduced in 2013, the Thunderbolt Station line of docks have become highly acclaimed, and considered amongst the best in the docking category. The TS4 continues this trend by introducing class-leading features not available on other Thunderbolt 4 docks.

With 18 ports of connectivity, the TS4 leads the way in the wealth of connectivity options it provides. At a time when other Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market generally offer in the realm of 11 ports, the TS4 not only provides more ports, it represents incredible value. Included in the TS4's 18 ports is a full size DisplayPort 1.4 connector. The majority of Thunderbolt 4 docks at this time do not include a built-in video port. The TS4 makes it easier to connect a monitor directly to the dock without the need for an adapter.

Exponential demand growth for remote and unmanned terminals in smart home, logistics, manufacturing and other end-user applications has driven iterative updates in Wi-Fi technology. Among the current generations of technologies, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) is mainstream while Wi-Fi 6 and 6E (802.11ax) are at promotional stages, according to TrendForce's investigations. In order to meet the connection requirements of industry concepts such as the Metaverse, many major manufacturers have trained their focus on the faster and more stable next generation 802.11be Wi-Fi standard amendment, commonly known as Wi-Fi 7. Considering technical characteristics, maturity, and product certification status, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are expected to surpass Wi-Fi 5 to become mainstream technology in 2022, with global market share expected to reach 58%.

Although most people use WiFi for their network connectivity these days, there are times when a wired connection is needed, say for large file transfer and backups. We've finally seen a transition onwards from Gigabit Ethernet on the humble desktop PC, but for some 2.5 Gbps isn't enough and 10 Gbps has become more and more of a viable option. However, it seems like QNAP has decided that 10 Gbps is getting a bit long in the tooth and as such, the company has introduced a 16-port SFP28 switch, for those that are craving even faster LAN speeds.

The QSW-M5216-1T has a combined switching capacity of 820 Gbps and all of the 25 Gbps SFP28 ports are backwards compatible with 10 Gbps SFP+ based network cards. There's also a single multi-gig capable RJ45 port that goes from 100 Mps to 10 Gbps, plus a 1 Gbps management port, as well as a serial port around the back for management. The QSW-M5216-1T is also capable of combining four ports into a 100 Gbps capable link, when combined with QNAP's QXG-100G2SF-E810 100 Gbps capable network card, although it retails for north of US$1,000. A more reasonable alternative would be the US$219 QXG-25G2SF-CX4 dual-port 25 Gbps card, which seems quite reasonably priced for the speeds on offer.

Innodisk has announced its all-new EGPL-T101 M.2 2280 10GbE LAN module, the first 10GbE LAN designed in M.2 form factor, features flexible integration and excellent compatibility with existing network infrastructure for crucial backward compatibility. Looking into the booming markets and scenarios ranging from surveillance to gaming, networking, and industrial uses, the growing demand for high-speed LAN solutions is promising. Additionally, interference issues are also occurring more often as the size of the PCIe form factor cannot fit in the smaller design of IPC platforms nowadays. Being the leading global provider of industrial embedded flash and memory, Innodisk is introducing the first M.2 10GbE LAN module designed to meet the demand for increased speed and reduced size, high-speed LAN solutions.

Innodisk's EGPL-T101 is the first M.2 2280-to-single 10GbE Base-T Ethernet module which is also the smallest 10GbE expansion solution available today and ten times faster than standard Ethernet. By supporting PCI Express Gen 3x2, the EGPL-T101 module can provide sufficient bandwidth for one 10GbE LAN port suitable for server and industrial applications' high-speed network demands.

Based on the Intel 600-series chipset leak earlier today, it was easy to conclude that all 600-series motherboards would be getting PCIe 5.0 support, but alas, that is not the case. We've already seen some rock bottom Z690 without PCIe 5.0 and thanks to Videocardz we now know that Gigabyte's B660 Gaming X DDR4 will also lack PCIe 5.0 support.

How do we know this board doesn't support PCIe 5.0? First of all, the x16 slot closest to the CPU uses one of Gigabyte's older reinforced PCIe 4.0 slots, whereas all of its Z690 boards with PCIe 5.0 support uses a new, white type of slot. These slots use a visually different kind of reinforcement as well, even if it's only marginally different. However, Gigabyte doesn't appear to be silk screening PCIe 5.0 on supported boards and it's possible that they're using a different slot vendor for the B660 boards.

Akasa has been into client networking products lately, with its recent low-profile 2.5 GbE adapter. The company's latest product in the category is the AK-PCCE25-02. This card provides 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet connectivity, along with 25.5 Watts of Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), which should power equipment such as repeaters or cameras. It features all power switching components on board, and relies on a SATA power input for this purpose, and doesn't load the PCIe slot for PoE. Without the SATA power input, the PoE function is disabled, and it works like any other 2.5 GbE adapter. The card remains half-height, and a low-profile bracket is included. The company didn't reveal pricing.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to build its third-generation, high performance computing (HPC) system, called Kestrel. Named for a falcon with keen eyesight and intelligence, Kestrel's moniker is apropos for its mission—to rapidly advance the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) energy research and development (R&D) efforts to deliver transformative energy solutions to the entire United States.

Installation of the new system will begin in the fall of 2022 in NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) data center. Kestrel will complement the laboratory's current supercomputer, Eagle, during the transition. When completed—in early 2023—Kestrel will accelerate energy efficiency and renewable energy research at a pace and scale more than five times greater than Eagle, with approximately 44 petaflops of computing power.

Intel has dominated the client Wi-Fi + Bluetooth network adapter market in the PC space for some time now, particularly with WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E interfaces integrated with motherboards. Even on the AMD platform, motherboard vendors have extensively packaged not just Intel-branded WiFi + Bluetooth modules, but also their wired LAN controllers. In the commercial desktop and commercial notebook markets, Intel leverages this position to push its vPro management suite, with Intel WLAN controllers featuring vPro support. This is something felt lacking in the rival AMD PRO ecosystem, and something the company is looking to change with its collaboration with MediaTek.

AMD RZ660 will be the first controller based on this partnership. Based on the MediaTek Filogic 330P chipset, the controller combines WiFi 6E (6 GHz), with the latest generation Bluetooth (at least Bluetooth 5.2). Driver software and support for this solution will be handled by AMD, as would distribution. MediaTek stated that the first notebooks and desktop PCs (includes DIY motherboards) featuring the AMD RZ660 will debut in 2022. The AMD-supplied driver software would also enable the company to create special "PRO" variants of the RZ660 to bundle with its Ryzen PRO SoCs for the commercial PC and workstation markets. There doesn't appear to be any such collaboration with wired Ethernet, as there is an even competition between Intel and Realtek over the 2.5 GbE PHY market, with both companies offering gaming-specific variants—Intel Killer and Realtek DragonLAN.

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.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the production availability of its EM6 Series Enterprise NVMe-oF solid state drives (SSDs) for Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) systems. Using the Marvell 88SN2400 NVMe-oF SSD converter controller that converts an NVMe SSD into a dual-ported 25Gb NVMe-oF SSD, KIOXIA EM6 Series drives expose the entire SSD bandwidth to the network.

Due to their ability to scale performance of NVMe SSDs, native NVMe-oF architectures are well-suited for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), high performance computing (HPC) and storage expansion. In the case of HPC, leveraging the Lustre file system, which is used to provide high bandwidth and parallel access to compute clusters, is beneficial to NVMe-oF based storage, such as EBOF systems with EM6 SSDs, that enable high availability (HA) configurations. An HPC HA configuration example consists of multiple and redundant network connections between a compute host and an EBOF with 88SN2400-connected NVMe SSDs, to deliver scalable throughput based on the number of SSDs.

Although we did mention the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE in our Z690 motherboard roundup piece, until now, we didn't really know what the board looked like, since MSI has been very shy when it comes to sharing details of the board. However, now the company has released a couple of pictures of the board, courtesy of the board winning a pair of CES 2022 Innovation Honoree awards.

We're still short on details of this monster board, as it'll measure 305x310 mm, which almost puts it in SSI EEB territory. The board has what can only be described as a full cover, since outside of the CPU socket and some of the components near it, you really can't see anything. On top of the memory modules, MSI has gone for a display of some kind that seems to display some system information, such as the CPU type and current clock speed. The location of the display doesn't seem to be ideal though, but it's said to measure in at 3.5-inches.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the eight-port 2.5GbE unmanaged switch - the QSW-1108-8T. Featuring eight 2.5GbE ports, plug-and-play set up, automatic loop detection and blocking, and auto-negotiation functions, the QSW-1108-8T is a cost-efficient high speed network upgrade solution for homes and businesses.

"One of the major elements holding back people from upgrading their Ethernet infrastructure is the cost and availability of switches and adapters. QNAP have demonstrated a firm commitment to the 2.5GbE ecosystem, with the new QSW-1108-8T switch representing an affordable way for home and business users to take their Ethernet network to the next level," said Ricky Ho, Product Manager of QNAP.

Belkin, a global consumer electronics leader, today unveils the Works With Chromebook certified USB-C 14-Port Docking Station at InfoComm 2021. The docking station joins four power and connectivity solutions in Belkin's family of certified Works With Chromebook products. Each product is tested to meet Google's compatibility standards and equips any organization with the solutions that make adapting to evolving technology simple and seamless.

Engineered with the growing number of Chrome OS users in mind, the USB-C 14-Port Docking Station is capable of automatic firmware updates through Chrome OS and offers wide compatibility with all Chromebooks for an enhanced and seamless connectivity experience. It is designed to house multiple ports for extreme productivity - HDMI 2.0, DP 1.4, USB-C, USB 3.1 Gen 2, 65 W PD 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio In/Out - providing users with the option to display, connect and charge with one simple and modern solution.

With 2.5 Gbps Ethernet gaining popularity, we're seeing more and more companies launching 2.5 Gbps products and Akasa is the latest to join the fray. Although there's nothing really unique about this 2.5 Gbps card, it is the lowest profile card we've seen so far, which might make it suitable for certain builds where a regular card wouldn't fit.

The awkwardly named AK-PCCE25-01 features a Realtek Ethernet controller, although we can't quite make out which one, but it's one of the RTL8125 variants. The card comes with a full-height and half-height bracket and drivers for Windows 7 through 10, as well as Linux are provided. Retail pricing seems to be around US$31.95/£27.98/€29.90, which is in line with the competition, or somewhat cheaper.

Today, Intel introduced Loihi 2, its second-generation neuromorphic research chip, and Lava, an open-source software framework for developing neuro-inspired applications. Their introduction signals Intel's ongoing progress in advancing neuromorphic technology. Neuromorphic computing, which draws insights from neuroscience to create chips that function more like the biological brain, aspires to deliver orders of magnitude improvements in energy efficiency, speed of computation and efficiency of learning across a range of edge applications: from vision, voice and gesture recognition to search retrieval, robotics, and constrained optimization problems.

"Loihi 2 and Lava harvest insights from several years of collaborative research using Loihi. Our second-generation chip greatly improves the speed, programmability, and capacity of neuromorphic processing, broadening its usages in power and latency constrained intelligent computing applications. We are open sourcing Lava to address the need for software convergence, benchmarking, and cross-platform collaboration in the field, and to accelerate our progress toward commercial viability." -- Mike Davies, director of Intel's

Cables, why is it that some people are so fixated about them? We've seen companies like Monster Cable base their entire business around them, yet most people don't even seem to know why they're buying expensive cables. Asus has now joined the club of expensive cable sellers with its new ROG CAT7 Cable, which has started to appear in various markets around the world.

In all fairness, Asus isn't asking for thousands, or even hundreds of dollars for their ROG branded cables, but a 1.5 metre cable will set you back in the region of $22, whereas a longer 3 metre cable comes in at around $37. An ROG branded velcro tie is included in the box as the only accessory. We're not sure that nylon braiding is going to be useful on an Ethernet cable, but Asus is at least using shielded FTP wires (although Asus say STP on their site), which suggests it should be a decent quality cable at the very least. It's worth keeping in mind that CAT 7 isn't recognised by the TIA/EIA as part of the Ethernet standard and offers no real world benefits over CAT 6A on a 10 Gbps or slower network.

In view of the ongoing production capacity shortage in the semiconductor industry and the resultant price hike of chips, revenue of the top 10 IC design companies for 2Q21 reached US$29.8 billion, a 60.8% YoY increase, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In particular, Taiwanese companies put up remarkable performances during this period, with both MediaTek and Novatek posting YoY growths of more than 95%. AMD, on the other hand, experienced a nearly 100% YoY revenue growth, the highest among the top 10.

TrendForce indicates that the ranking of the top five companies for 2Q21 remained unchanged from the previous quarter, although there were major changes in the 6th to 10th spots. More specifically, after finalizing its acquisition of Inphi, Marvell experienced a major revenue growth and leapfrogged Xilinx and Realtek in the rankings from 9th place in 1Q21 to 7th place in 2Q21.

Today, Intel announced the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit (code-named "Beast Canyon"), a highly modular desktop PC engineered to provide a phenomenal experience for gaming, streaming and recording. With the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processors, support for full-size discrete graphics cards and a full range of I/O ports, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit delivers high performance gameplay and smooth, immersive visuals.

Compact Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kits are designed to provide powerful, immersive gaming experiences. For performance, connectivity, and modularity, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme kit delivers massive performance with a small footprint.

The highest-performing Intel NUC yet delivers a premium and size-optimized PC package for creating innovative desktops suited to gamers' unique performance needs. Packing the latest hardware components into a tiny 8-liter case, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit is loaded with features typically found in much larger gaming rigs and offers customizable design options.

AAEON, a leader in AI edge solutions, announces the release of the BOXER-8230AI AI Edge box PC powered by the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX System on Module (SOM). The BOXER-8230AI delivers powerful computing performance without breaking budgets, along with rugged design and diverse I/O layout including five Gigabit Ethernet ports. The BOXER-8230AI offers a solution that's perfect for intelligent applications including surveillance, smart factory, and smart retail.
The BOXER-8230AI platform brings flexibility to meet the needs of customers, with industrial design and storage capacity. With two available configurations, the BOXER-8230AI-A3 and BOXER-8230AI-A4 systems offer flexible I/O loadout with five Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports to connect with IP cameras and other devices, as well as four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and two COM ports. Storage flexibility is provided with 16 GB onboard eMMC storage, microSD slot and a 2.5" SATA III bay (A4 model).

The BOXER-8230AI platform is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX SOM, delivering powerful AI edge computing without compromising costs. The Jetson TX2 NX delivers more than twice the performance of the NVIDIA Jetson Nano thanks to its six-core ARM processor and NVIDIA Pascal GPU with 256 CUDA cores. This allows the Jetson TX2 NX to achieve speeds up to 1.33 TFLOPS, and enables the system to power a wide range of AI Edge applications.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to announce the MANO540, a Mini-ITX motherboard powered by the FCLGA1200 10th Gen Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 processor (codename: Comet Lake) with the Intel H410 chipset. It also supports two 260-pin DDR4-2933/2666/2400 SO-DIMM sockets for up to 64 GB of memory. With a small form factor of 17 x 17 cm, this industrial motherboard is an excellent choice for space-constrained environments. The advanced MANO540 is specifically designed for performance-demanding applications with its excellent reliability as well as communication and edge computing capabilities.

"Axiomtek's MANO540 supports ubiquitous high-speed data transfer interfaces, including PCIe 3.0, USB 3.2 Gen1 and SATA-600. It also features one M.2 Key B slot for USB 3.2 interface 5G module. The expansion is provided by one PCIe x16, one M.2 Key E slot and one full-size PCI Express Mini Card slot for wireless devices such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth," said Kenny Lin, the product manager of the Product Planning Division at Axiomtek. "This industrial motherboard is integrated with Intel integrated Gfx graphics engine with UHD 4K resolution and provides rapid video acceleration and dual-view capability through the DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0 and VGA. Axiomtek also offers the ECM500, an industrial chassis designed for the MANO540 to help shorten the time to market."

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."

The all-new AS-T10G2 is here, bringing increased efficiency and speeds to the much beloved AS-T10G. The AS-T10G2 uses the AQC-107 controller, which offers increased performance, and lower power requirements. Using the Lockerstor 16R Pro, transfer rates were found to be up to 1127 MB/s when reading and 1124 MB/s when writing. The AS-T10G2 also supports IP, TCP, UDP checksum offload to reduce CPU usage for a more efficient experience.

The AS-T10G2 is equipped with a 10 Gbps 8p8c RJ-45 Ethernet port. The AS-T10G2 supports automatic switching between all major Ethernet speeds and is compatible with four lanes of PCI Express 3.0. Pop it into an ASUSTOR NAS running ADM 4.0 or a PC to upgrade network speeds to 10-Gigabit Ethernet. The AS-T10G2 is compatible with both full-height and half-height computers, making it compatible with almost any device featuring a PCI Express slot, ensuring affordable, yet high speed networking for both homes and businesses.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, launched its first dual-port 100 GbE network expansion card - the QXG-100G2SF-E810. Featuring an Intel Ethernet Controller E810 and PCIe 4.0, the QXG-100G2SF-E810 provides up to 100 Gbps bandwidth for QNAP NAS or Windows /Linux devices to attain optimal performance in a wide range of applications and services. It is a perfect match for unleashing the full potential of QNAP's TS-h2490FU NVMe all-flash storage that can be paired with high-speed switches for high-performance, low-latency data centers.

"The QXG-100G2SF-E810 redefines ultra-high-speed networking with 100 Gbps connectivity," said Stanley Huang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Users can also configure network redundancy to achieve network failover via the switch for continuous service and high availability." The QXG-100G2SF-E810 is ideal for I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive virtualization and data centers, and boosts network efficiency with the support of iWARP/RDMA and SR-IOV (coming soon). When used in a server or workstation, it supports Windows Server (2016 or 2019) and Linux platforms (Drivers required).

QNAP Systems, Inc., today launched the new QXG-10G2T-X710 10 GbE network expansion card. Featuring an Intel Ethernet Controller X710, the QXG-10G2T-X710 is a PCIe Gen 3 card (compatible with PCIe Gen 2) that can be installed in a QNAP NAS or a Windows /Linux PC to add two 10 GbE ports. The QXG-10G2T-X710 supports is compatible with five speeds (10G / 5G / 2.5G / 1G / 100M) and can achieve up to 20 Gbps transfer speeds by using both ports with Port Trunking. Network efficiency is boosted with SR-IOV and iSCSI support, and I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive virtualization applications and data centers will greatly benefit. The QXG-10G2T-X710 is also a perfect match for QNAP's 10 GbE switches to build a budget-friendly high-speed network environment.

When installed in a Windows or Linux PC, users must install the QXG-10G2T-X710 driver. No driver is required when installing in a QNAP NAS, but QTS 4.5.2/ QuTS hero h4.5.1 (or later) is required. The QNAP QXG-10G2T-X710 10 GbE network expansion card is now available for 387 USD.

NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA BlueField -3 DPU, its next-generation data processing unit, to deliver the most powerful software-defined networking, storage and cybersecurity acceleration capabilities available for data centers.

The first DPU built for AI and accelerated computing, BlueField-3 lets every enterprise deliver applications at any scale with industry-leading performance and data center security. It is optimized for multi-tenant, cloud-native environments, offering software-defined, hardware-accelerated networking, storage, security and management services at data-center scale.