The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, originally established to develop 25, 50 and 100 Gbps Ethernet specifications, announced today it has changed its name to the Ethernet Technology Consortium in order to reflect a new focus on higher-speed Ethernet technologies.

The goal of the consortium is to enhance the Ethernet specification to operate at new speeds by utilizing specifications that are developed or in development. This allows the organization to work alongside other industry groups and standards bodies to adapt Ethernet at a pace that aligns with the rapidly evolving needs of the industry. The ETC has more than 45 members with top-level promoter members that include Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Google, Mellanox and Microsoft.

At its 2020 IEEE ISSCC keynote, AMD presented two slides that detail the extent of cost savings yielded by its bold decision to embrace the MCM (multi-chip module) approach to not just its enterprise and HEDT processors, but also its mainstream desktop ones. By confining only those components that tangibly benefit from cutting-edge silicon fabrication processes, namely the CPU cores, while letting other components sit on relatively inexpensive 12 nm, AMD is able to maximize its 7 nm foundry allocation, by making it produce small 8-core CCDs (CPU complex dies), which add up to AMD's target core-counts. With this approach, AMD is able to cram up to 16 cores onto its AM4 desktop socket using two chiplets, and up to 64 cores using eight chiplets on its SP3r3 and sTRX4 sockets.

In the slides below, AMD compares the cost of its current 7 nm + 12 nm MCM approach to a hypothetical monolithic die it would have had to build on 7 nm (including the I/O components). The slides suggest that the cost of a single-chiplet "Matisse" MCM (eg: Ryzen 7 3700X) is about 40% less than that of the double-chiplet "Matisse" (eg: Ryzen 9 3950X). Had AMD opted to build a monolithic 7 nm die that had 8 cores and all the I/O components of the I/O die, such a die would cost roughly 50% more than the current 1x CCD + IOD solution. On the other hand, a monolithic 7 nm die with 16 cores and I/O components would cost 125% more. AMD hence enjoys a massive headroom for cost-cutting. Prices of the flagship 3950X can be close to halved (from its current $749 MSRP), and AMD can turn up the heat on Intel's upcoming Core i9-10900K by significantly lowering price of its 12-core 3900X from its current $499 MSRP. The company will also enjoy more price-cutting headroom for its 6-core Ryzen 5 SKUs than it did with previous-generation Ryzen 5 parts based on monolithic dies.

During the IEDM event hosted by the IEEE organization, ASML's CEO, Martin van den Brink, took the stage to elaborate more on ASML's vision of the future of semiconductors. When talking about the future of semiconductors, Mr. Brink started talking about Intel and their vision for the future. Intel's slides were showing many things including backporting of IP to older processes and plan to go back to "tick-tock" two-year cadence to restore the previous confidence in Intel's manufacturing capabilities.

Perhaps one of the most interesting notes about the presentation is the fact that Intel is working hard to realize its plans of bringing back a two-year cadence of "tick-tock" process realization. That means that in the future, presumably after 10 nm debut problems are solved, Intel wants to do the old process and optimization tactics. A slide (shown below) titled "In Moore We Trust" is speaking a lot about Intel's future plans, showing few things in particular: Intel's upcoming 10 nm++ and 10 nm+++ nodes, and the possibility of backporting.

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance is now available and delivers the best user experience with devices based on IEEE 802.11ax. The certification program brings new features and capabilities that enable substantially greater overall Wi-Fi network performance in challenging environments with many connected devices such as stadiums, airports, and industrial parks. With adoption of the latest Wi-Fi generation increasing, product vendors and service providers can trust Wi-Fi CERTIFIED will distinguish Wi-Fi 6 products and networks that meet the highest standards for security and interoperability. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 provides significant capacity, performance, and latency improvements to the entire Wi-Fi ecosystem, while ensuring products across vendors to work well together to deliver greater innovation and opportunity.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 supports a more diverse set of devices and applications, from those requiring peak performance in demanding enterprise environments to those requiring low power and low latency in smart homes or industrial IoT scenarios. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers nearly four times the capacity of Wi-Fi 5, and is an evolutionary advancement for Wi-Fi's ability to deliver high-performance infrastructure and optimized connectivity to all devices on a network simultaneously - bringing noticeable improvements in densely connected Wi-Fi environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers critical connectivity that supports cellular networks, and leverages high speeds, low latency, power efficiency, greater capacity, and enhanced coverage to deliver many advanced 5G services.

Razer , the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the Razer Sila, a high-performance WiFi router designed for home users requiring WiFi service optimized for high-performance gaming, streaming and downloading multimedia content. With the upsurge in mobile gaming, and with many homes unable to run a wired network to every room, fast and reliable WiFi is more important than ever. The Razer Sila router is designed to deliver lag-free gaming and smooth, interruption-free streaming over a fast wireless network, meeting the needs of today's mobile, console and laptop users.

The Razer Sila features a suite of technologies designed to give gamers the fastest, most reliable WiFi connection within their home or office with Razer FasTrack, Multi-Channel ZeroWait DFS and Mesh capability with a dedicated backhaul. Setup and management through a mobile app makes Sila installation and use simple and quick. The Razer FasTrack software featured in the Razer Sila is a proprietary QoS engine for smart traffic management. By using deep packet inspection and adaptive learning technology, Razer FasTrack allows users to prioritize traffic based on application and device types, from mobile phones and smart TVs through to laptops, PCs or consoles. With built-in detection for PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles, users can easily fine tune their networks for the smoothest gaming or streaming experiences. Razer FasTrack also features a one-touch gaming mode, to automatically reserve bandwidth for online gaming.

Intel is making progress in its development of a new discrete GPU architecture, after its failed attempt with "Larrabee" that ended up as an HPC accelerator; and ancient attempts such as the i740. This comes in the wake of the company's high-profile hiring of Raja Koduri, AMD's former Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) head. The company unveiled slides pointing to the direction in which its GPU development is headed, at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco. That direction is essentially scaling up its existing iGPU architecture, and bolstering it with mechanisms to sustain high clock speeds better.

The company's first 14 nm dGPU prototype, shown as a test-chip at the ISSCC, is a 2-chip solution. The first chip contains two key components, the GPU itself, and a system agent; and the second chip is an FPGA that interfaces with the system bus. The GPU component, as it stands now, is based on Intel's Gen 9 architecture, and features a three execution unit (EU) clusters. Don't derive numbers from this yet, as Intel is only trying to demonstrate a proof of concept. The three clusters are wired to a sophisticated power/clock management mechanism that efficiently manages power and clock-speed of each individual EU. There's also a double-clock mechanism that doubles clock speeds (of the boost state) beyond what today's Gen 9 EUs can handle on Intel iGPUs. Once a suitable level of energy efficiency is achieved, Intel will use newer generations of EUs, and scale up EU counts taking advantage of newer fab processes, to develop bigger discrete GPUs.More slides follow.

The Ethernet Alliance, a global consortium dedicated to the continued success and advancement of Ethernet technologies, today commended the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group on the approval of IEEE 802.3bs, Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers, and Management Parameters for 200 gigabit per second (Gb/s) and 400 Gb/s Operation. The specification of 200 gigabit Ethernet (200GbE) and 400 gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) operation across various interconnects will help satisfy mounting bandwidth demands from cloud-scale data centers, internet exchanges, co-location services, service provider networks, and other bandwidth intensive application spaces, while delivering better economies of scale and lower cost-per-port performance.

"IEEE 802.3bs represents a transformational moment in the move to next generation of networks. The delivery of 200G and 400G is arriving just in time to meet growing needs for reliable, high-speed connectivity from a diverse array of applications and markets," said John D'Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance; and senior principal engineer, Huawei. "The exceptional effort resulting in the completion of this standard is only the start of the industry's investment in the networks of tomorrow. We've laid a firm foundation for 200G and 400G with our early interoperability demonstrations and plugfests, but it's time to kick things into high gear. The real work of testing and verifying multivendor interoperability begins now, and the Ethernet Alliance is ready. We look forward to building on past successes, and helping accelerate 200G and 400G Ethernet's rollout and adoption."

The singularity concept isn't a simple one. It has attached to it not only the idea of Artificial Intelligence that is capable of constant self-improvement, but also that the invention and deployment of this kind of AI will trigger ever accelerating technological growth - so much so that humanity will see itself changed forever. Now, really, there are some pieces of technology already that have effectively changed the fabric of society. We've seen this happen with the Internet, bridging gaps in time and space and ushering humanity towards frankly inspiring times of growth and development. Even smartphones, due to their adoption rates and capabilities, have seen the metamorphosis of human interaction and ways to connect with each other, even sparking some smartphone-related psychological conditions. But all of those will definitely, definitely, pale in comparison to what changes might ensue following the singularity.

The thing is, up to now, we've been shackled in our (still tremendous growth) by our own capabilities as a species: our world is built on layers upon layers of brilliant minds that have developed the framework of technologies our society is now interspersed with. But this means that as fast as development has been, it has still been somewhat slowed down by humanity's ability to evolve, and to develop. Each development has come with almost perfect understanding of what came before it: it's a cohesive whole, with each step being provable and verifiable through the scientific method, a veritable "standing atop the shoulders of giants". What happens, then, when we lose sight of the thought process behind developments: when the train of thought behind them is so exquisite that we can't really understand it? When we deploy technologies and programs that we don't really understand? Enter the singularity, an event to which we've stopped walking towards: it's more of a hurdle race now, and perhaps more worryingly, it's no longer fully controlled by humans.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is hosting a press conference today to launch two new products, the GIGABYTE X99-SOC Champion motherboard as well as a new GIGABYTE BRIX compact PC built around the new 5th Gen Intel Core processors. Held at the Neopolitan Ballroom of the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, USA, the press event also includes a live overclocking demonstration where the new motherboard will be put to the test by GIGABYTE's evangelist overclockers HiCookie, Sofos1990 and Dinos22. Currently holding the highest DDR4 memory frequency World Record, the GIGABYTE X99-SOC Champion will be overclocked on Liquid Nitrogen to see if a new world record can be achieved live at the event.

From January 6th until the 8th, GIGABYTE will be showcasing their latest hardware solutions at the Neopolitan Ballroom of the Caesars Palace including 10 custom made demo systems especially for CES by system builders such as Cyberpower, iBuypower, Origin PC, Maingear, XOTIC PC, Falcon NW and Digital Storm. A few case mods will also be on display from renowned case modders Richard Surroz, Bob Stewart and Larry Andersen.

TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, is now shipping their TL-WPA4220KIT, a Wireless Range Extender Kit which uses Powerline and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi technology to spread seamless connectivity in any home or office. The Wireless Range Extender Kit includes two Powerline Adapters, the TL-PA4010 and the TL-WPA4220. The first connects to your router and feeds network connection through your existing electrical circuitry at the rate of 500Mbps, and the latter broadcasts that connection as a 300Mbps Wi-Fi signal while providing two fast Ethernet ports for concurrent wired connectivity.

TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, will debut at the 2014 International CES a comprehensive family of wireless small office, home connectivity, and customer premises equipment (CPE) designed to strengthen the company's global leadership in WLAN and broadband CPE devices.

Heading off the product debuts are two new additions to TP-LINK's growing line of powerful 802.11ac products. TP-LINK's AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router will feature the next generation IEEE 802.11AC Wi-Fi standard, offering data transfer speeds of up to 1.9Gbps: 1.3Gbps over the clearer 5GHz channel and 600Mbps over the 2.4GHz Channel. It also includes an ultra-fast USB 3.0 port for sharing files, movies or music. The TP-LINK AC1900 Router is powerful while being simple to configure with TP-LINK's Tether App. It will ship in the second quarter of 2014 with an MSRP of $179.99.

IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced the creation of an IEEE 802.11 study group to define the scope of a future IEEE 802.111 amendment with the aim of enhancing the efficiency and performance of wireless local area network (WLAN) deployments. The new IEEE 802.11 High Efficiency WLAN (HEW) Study Group will consider use cases, including dense network environments with large numbers of access points and stations.

More than 300 individuals from equipment and silicon suppliers, service providers, carriers, systems integrators, consultant organizations and academic institutions from more than 20 countries have expressed interest in participating in the work to define the scope for a future HEW project. The IEEE 802.11 HEW Study Group meets during IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group meetings, the schedule for which can be found here. For more information about the IEEE 802.11 HEW Study Group, visit this page.

IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced the launch of an IEEE 802.3 "Standard for Ethernet" study group to explore development of a 400 Gb/s Ethernet standard to efficiently support ever-increasing, exponential network bandwidth growth.

"Traffic is growing everywhere-more Internet users, more ways to access the Internet more quickly, higher-bandwidth content, new applications enabled, etc.-and it's critical that we move now to create a plan for the Ethernet ecosystem to evolve beyond today's capabilities, in order to accommodate the burgeoning bandwidth tsunami," said John D'Ambrosia, chair of the new IEEE 802.3 400 Gb/s Ethernet Study Group and chief Ethernet evangelist, CTO office, Dell. "The launch of this study group is the next critical step in evolving the IEEE 802.3 standard to stay ahead of industry's needs. It builds on two years of open efforts around inviting Ethernet's vast array of stakeholders into the work of assessing and tackling the market's emerging application requirements."

IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced that the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board has approved the IEEE 802.11ad-2012 amendment to provide data rates up to 7 Gbps, more than 10 times the maximum speed previously enabled within the IEEE 802.11TM standard. With the improvements introduced in IEEE 802.11ad, this amendment is a perfect complement to the existing IEEE 802.11 standard, acting as the foundation for tri-band networking, wireless docking, wired equivalent data transfer rates and uncompressed streaming video.

The IEEE 802.11ad specification adds a "fast session transfer" feature, which enables wireless devices to seamlessly transition between the 60 GHz frequency band and the legacy 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The ability to imperceptively move between the bands ensures that computing devices are always "best connected," enabling them to operate with optimal performance and range criteria.

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the commercial availability of the industry's first enterprise-level 802.11ac access point (AP) products. Huawei's introduction of the first 802.11ac APs in the enterprise market marks another important milestone for Huawei as one of the leading ICT solution providers in the industry. This is also testament to Huawei's commitment to Gigabit wireless access, further promoting the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and accelerating business transformation.

Comprising two models, AP7030DN-AC and AP7130DN-AC, Huawei's enterprise-level 802.11ac APs support throughput of up to 1.3Gbps at 5G frequency and 1.75Gbps at dual frequency, and allow for smooth evolution from 11n to 11ac. Its high performance and industry-leading features will enable enterprise users to enjoy a wide range of wireless services that have high bandwidth requirements, such as HD video streaming, multi-media activities and cloud desktop access. Independently developed by Huawei's dedicated design team, the 802.11ac APs feature a world-class casing design which was awarded the "iF Product Design Award 2013" presented by iF International Forum Design, a prestigious design promotion organization based in Germany.

RivieraWaves, the leading wireless connectivity silicon IP (Intellectual Property) provider, announced IEEE Wi-Fi 11n certification of its new scalable Wi-Fi 802.11ac silicon IP. The IP is available in a broad range of configurations, supports 802.11n and 802.11ac specifications, single or multiple MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) streams, and up to four transmit and receive antennas. In its simplest 1x1 configuration, the IP is optimized for wireless sensors and many Internet of Things (IoT) applications requiring low power consumption. For more complex MIMO configurations, the IP can achieve optimized throughput close to the maximum theoretical values, and is ideal for applications such as smart phones, tablets, computers, digital TVs and set-top boxes.

Thanks to the increased bandwidth and more complex modulation, 802.11ac devices can achieve throughputs of around three times those of 802.11n devices. Other benefits of 802.11ac are better range and improved reliability, in particular for better gaming experiences and high-definition (HD) video streaming.

The Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation today announced that Qualcomm Incorporated has joined as a Founder Member. Qualcomm's commitment reinforces HSA as the next technological underpinning in computing for a broad range of platforms and devices. Since its formation in June, the HSA Foundation has more than doubled its membership with new Founder, Supporter, Contributor and Associate members that have joined the consortium.

Qualcomm joins AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek Inc., Samsung Electronics Ltd. and Texas Instruments as founder members of the HSA Foundation. The companies are working together to drive a single architecture specification, which simplifies the programming model for software developers on modern platforms and devices. The HSA Foundation will unlock the performance and power efficiency of the parallel computing engines found in heterogeneous processors.

IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced the approval of IEEE 802.3-2012 "Standard for Ethernet." IEEE 802.3 defines wired connectivity for Ethernet local area, access and metropolitan area networks around the world.

"'IEEE 802.3 technologies and the varied Ethernet networks that they enable are found everywhere, and the standard's application horizon continues to expand," said David Law, chair of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group and distinguished engineer with HP Networking. "When Ethernet networking was conceived in the 1970s and the IEEE 802.3 standard was first published in 1985, its founders could not possibly have foreseen the global transformation that their ideas and efforts would ultimately set into motion. The standard has helped spawn whole new business models, industries and ways of life. And that cycle of innovation continues today."

IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced the launch of the IEEE 802.11 Patent Pool Exploratory Forum. Through the forum, owners of patents essential to IEEE 802.11 standards will discuss licensing practices, options for licensing administration and other issues related to launching a patent pool for IEEE 802.11-2012 and appropriate extensions to the standard.

The IEEE 802.11 Patent Pool Exploratory Forum was formed at the request of IEEE members in order to foster one or more patent pools covering IEEE 802.11-2012 technologies. IEEE in May announced the publication of IEEE 802.11-2012, which defines the technology for the world's premier wireless LAN products. IEEE 802.11-based products are often branded as "Wi-Fi" in the market. IEEE 802.11 standards underpin wireless networking applications around the world, such as wireless access to the Internet from offices, homes, airports, hotels, restaurants, trains and aircraft. IEEE 802.11's relevance continues to expand with the emergence of new applications, such as the smart grid and the "Internet of Things."

TP-Link, a global provider of networking products, has released its 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (TL-WDN4800), which allows users to connect a desktop computer to a wireless network to access a high-speed wireless network connection.

The adapter complies with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n and can access the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channels to provide wireless speeds of up to 450Mbps. The speed is ideal for users seeking a highly robust, bandwidth intensive wireless networking experience for HD video streaming and online gaming.

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced the formation of the IEEE 802.3 Next-Generation BASE-T Study Group. The new group is designed to measure industry interest and needs in the next generation of the IEEE 802.3 BASE-T family of technologies for Ethernet transmission over twisted-pair cabling.

Widely deployed for physical-layer connectivity in data centers, IEEE 802.3 BASE-T represents the highest-volume Ethernet port type today. IEEE 802.3 BASE-T technologies typically utilize server-uplink data rates of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet today, but platform transitions and systems innovation on all fronts are driving new networking requirements.

TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today announces from Computex Taipei, the launch of three new PoE+ switches. Power over Ethernet (PoE) combines power and data over Ethernet cables. PoE facilitates the installation of devices in remote locations, without having to provide an electrical outlet near the device. PoE's popularity is driven by significant installation time and cost savings.

The PoE standard is based on the IEEE 802.11af specification. It provides up to 15.4 Watts of power per switch port. The new PoE+ standard doubles the power provided by PoE ports. PoE+ is based on the IEEE 802.11at specification which provides up to 30 Watts of power per port. PoE+ is designed to support power hungry devices such as outdoor access points and pan / tilt / zoom IP cameras.

HP today unveiled research from HP Labs, the company's central research arm, that illustrates the architecture for a data center that requires no net energy from traditional power grids.

The research shows how the architecture, combined with holistic energy-management techniques, enables organizations to cut total power usage by 30 percent, as well as dependence on grid power and costs by more than 80 percent.

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced that it has approved the IEEE 802.1aq-2012 Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks: Bridges and Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks. Also known as Shortest Path Bridging (SPB), the standard will help dramatically reduce the complexity of Ethernet networks while increasing their scale. Part of the IEEE 802 family of standards for local and metropolitan area networks, IEEE 802.1aq encompasses all functionalities of existing technologies, such as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Multiple MAC Registration Protocol (MMRP) into a single, easy-to-use link state protocol.

The new IEEE 802.1aq SPB standard is expected to significantly streamline the creation and management of enterprise, carrier, and cloud networks, and is designed to virtually eliminate human error during network configuration. IEEE 802.1aq preserves the plug-and-play nature that established Ethernet as the de facto protocol at Layer 2. It leverages a proven carrier-grade link state protocol for automatic and instantaneous building of the most logical, optimized topology between access points. This simplifies endpoint provisioning, decreases configuration burdens, and reduces errors. It also helps enable more dynamic deployments that are easier to use and maintain than other technologies.

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced the publication of IEEE 802.11-2012, which defines the technology for the world's premier wireless local area network (LAN) products.

The new IEEE 802.11-2012 revision has been expanded significantly by supporting devices and networks that are faster, more secure, while offering improved Quality of Service and, improved cellular network hand-off. IEEE 802.11 standards, often referred to as "Wi-Fi," already underpin wireless networking applications around the world, such as wireless access to the Internet from offices, homes, airports, hotels, restaurants, trains and aircraft around the world. The standard's relevance continues to expand with the emergence of new applications, such as the smart grid, which augments the facility for electricity generation, distribution, delivery and consumption with a two-way, end-to-end network for communications and control.