Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in generative AI servers and advanced cooling technologies, today released two GIGABYTE R-series servers (R183-ZK0 and R283-ZK0) with enhanced performance and reliability for cloud services and data-intensive applications. These highly scalable memory capacity servers support AMD EPYC 9004 processors and are ready for select 5th generation AMD EPYC processors with up to 192 CPU cores.

These new GIGABYTE servers are the first and only ones in the market that are one node with two CPUs that support 48 memory DIMMs. GIGABYTE's rich history in motherboard design and engineering with great signal integrity make this possible, a server with 12 TB memory using 256 GB DDR5 3DS RDIMMs. To accommodate a 12-memory channel platform with a 2DPC configuration and without compromising, a new memory layout was developed.

NVM Express, Inc. today announced the release of three new specifications and eight updated specifications. This update to NVMe technology builds on the strengths of previous NVMe specifications, introducing significant new features for modern computing environments while also streamlining development and time to market.

"Beginning as a single PCIe SSD specification, NVMe technology has grown into nearly a dozen specifications, including multiple command sets, that provide pivotal support for NVMe technology across all major transports and standardize many aspects of storage," said Peter Onufryk, NVM Express Technical Workgroup Chair. "NVMe technology adoption continues to grow and has succeeded in unifying client, cloud, AI and enterprise storage around a common architecture. The future of NVMe technology is bright and we have 75 new authorized technical proposals underway."

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom and rapid expansion of cloud-based services are accelerating the need for data centers to be more powerful, efficient and highly reliable. To meet the growing market demands, Microchip Technology has released the Flashtec NVMe 5016 Solid State Drive (SSD) controller. The 16-channel, PCIe Gen 5 NVM Express (NVMe) controller is designed to offer higher levels of bandwidth, security and flexibility.

"Data center technology must evolve to keep up with the significant advancements occurring in AI and Machine Learning (ML). Our fifth generation Flashtec NVMe controller is designed to lead the market in fulfilling the increased need for high-performance, power-optimized SSDs," said Pete Hazen, vice president of Microchip's data center solutions business unit. "The NVMe 5016 Flashtec PCIe controller can be deployed in data centers to facilitate effective and secure cloud computing and business-critical applications."

Kingston's NV2 NVMe SSD has been a popular budget choice that has offered some of the best price/performance ratio in its segment of the market. Now, Kingston has quietly added its replacement, the NV3 to its website and that entails a wide range of upgrades over the NV2. The Kingston NV2 came in a range of different variations with multiple different controllers and NAND types and so far the company hasn't revealed which controller or what NAND the NV3 will feature. However, the company lists 3D NAND with a sequential read speeds of 6,000 MB/s for the 1 TB and up SKUs which is a huge improvement over the NV2 which topped out at 3,500 MB/s. Write speeds top out at 5,000 MB/s, but this is limited to the 2 and 4 TB SKUs, but it's nearly twice that of the 2 TB NV2 SKU. The 1 TB SKU is also seeing almost a doubling in terms of write speeds over the NV2. The 500 GB SKU is seeing more modest performance improvements, but it's still getting a decent performance uplift.

Initially, Kingston will launch 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB SKUs, with the 4 TB SKU following in Q4 this year. Endurance remains the same as for the NV2, with the NV3 starting out at 160 TBW for the 500 GB SKU, which then doubles for each increase in size and tops out at 1280 TBW for the 4 TB SKU. Kingston has as yet to officially announce the drive, but some online retailers claim to be able to ship the NV3 in four to five days time, suggesting that the launch is imminent. Pricing appears to start at US$50 for the 500 GB SKU, which increases to US$70 for the 1 TB SKU, with the 2 TB SKU jumping to US$139 from the same retailer. This places the NV3 slightly higher than the current retail price of the NV2, which is hardly a surprise, considering it delivers better performance. All SKUs come with a three year warranty.

Sabrent teased its upcoming Rocket XTRM5 portable SSD. The company's flagship portable storage product, the drive implements Thunderbolt 5 (works on Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 at reduced speeds). It is able to take advantage of Thunderbolt 5 with 80 Gbps per-direction bandwidth, although we haven't seen anything in the product's teaser to suggest that it implements the Intel Bandwidth Boost technology, which would have given it 120 Gbps on one of the directions (either reading or writing), while the other direction is reduced to 40 Gbps.

The Rocket XTRM5, like most portable SSDs these days, is an enclosure with an M.2-2280 slot inside. This one encloses an M.2 Gen 5 NVMe SSD, and while Sabrent hasn't put out any performance numbers, we expect them to be above 64 Gbps (Gen 4 x4 maximum theoretical bandwidth per direction), to take advantage of the 80 Gbps per direction Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth. It is slated to come in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacity variants. Its enclosure is well-ventilated, and is made of aluminium all around. The company didn't put out a release date.

It feels that only a few days have passed since we announced the HatDrive! Nano, and there is much more in the pipeline that we're excited to share with you! Today, though, we have our Pineboards Ai Bundle (Hailo 8L) to whet your ever-hungry AI appetites, and we think you're going to love it.

Combining an M.2 2280 M-Key NVMe connection with an M.2 2230 A/E-Key connection pre-loaded with a Hailo-8L on a bottom-mounted Raspberry Pi 5 HAT enables you to get your AI fix whilst also being able to boot and make use of fast NVMe storage. This builds on the success of our ever-popular Raspberry Pi 5 AI HAT and Google Coral combinations, but massively bumps the processing power, enabling you to do so much more!

ScaleFlux, a leader in developing storage and memory technologies, marks its 10th anniversary by sampling its latest NVMe SSDs, the CSD5000 series. Purpose-built for the AI Era, CSD5000 is designed to alleviate bottlenecks in the AI/ML, Cloud, and Data Center computing infrastructure. Getting jobs on and off the GPUs and CPUs rapidly is crucial to reaching optimal utilization of the infrastructure for AI/ML, HPC, AI analytics, and cloud-native computing. "To enable high xPU utilization levels, the storage devices must be up to the tasks of reliably delivering massive amounts of data at blinding speeds and of rapidly and securely storing the checkpoints and outputs, all in a power-efficient manner - exactly what the CSD5000 was designed to do," said ScaleFlux CEO, Hao Zhong. Coinciding with the company's 10th anniversary, this release highlights a decade of remarkable achievements and sets the stage for an exciting future of continued growth and technological advancements.

Introducing the CSD5000: A New Chapter in SSD Storage
Built on the ScaleFlux FX5016 PCIe 5 SSD controller, the CSD5000 series sets a new bar for SSD performance, capacity density, efficiency, and feature set. Expanding upon the innovative write reduction technology and capacity expansion features from the previous generations of ScaleFlux drives, CSD5000 brings unrivaled capabilities to data storage.

Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that it is shipping ninth-generation (G9) TLC NAND in SSDs, making it the first in the industry to achieve this milestone. Micron G9 NAND features the industry's highest transfer speed of 3.6 GB/s, delivering unsurpassed bandwidth for reading and writing data. The new NAND enables best-in-class performance for artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-intensive use cases from personal devices and edge servers to enterprise and cloud data centers.

"The shipment of Micron G9 NAND is a testament to Micron's prowess in process technology and design innovations," said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of Technology and Products at Micron. "Micron G9 NAND is up to 73% denser than competitive technologies in the market today, allowing for more compact and efficient storage solutions that benefit both consumers and businesses."

MaxLinear, Inc., a leading provider of data storage acceleration solutions for enterprise and data center applications, today announced it will demonstrate the advanced compression, encryption, and security performance of its storage acceleration solution, Panther III, at the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) 2024 trade show from August 6-8, 2024. The demos will show that Panther III can achieve up to 40 times more throughput, up to 190 times better latency, and up to 1000 times less CPU utilization than a software-only solution, leading to significant cost savings in terms of flash drives and needed CPU cores.

MaxLinear's Panther III creates a bold new product category for maximizing the performance of data storage systems - a comprehensive, all-in-one "storage accelerator." Unlike encryption and/or compression solutions, MaxLinear's Panther III consolidates a comprehensive suite of storage acceleration functions, including compression, deduplication, encryption, data protection, and real-time validation, in a single hardware-based solution. Panther III is engineered to offload and expedite specific data processing tasks, thus providing a significant performance boost, storage cost savings, and energy savings compared to traditional software-only, FPGA, and other competitive solutions.

The first die shot of AMD's new 4 nm "Strix Point" mobile processor surfaced, thanks to an enthusiast on Chinese social media. "Strix Point" is a significantly larger die than "Phoenix." It measures 12.06 mm x 18.71 mm (L x W), compared to the 9.06 mm x 15.01 mm of "Phoenix." Much of this die size increase comes from the larger CPU, iGPU, and NPU. The process has been improved from TSMC N4 on "Phoenix" and its derivative "Hawk Point," to the newer TSMC N4P node.

Nemez (GPUsAreMagic) annotated the die shot in great detail. The CPU now has 12 cores spread across two CCX, one of which contains four "Zen 5" cores sharing a 16 MB L3 cache; and the other with eight "Zen 5c" cores sharing an 8 MB L3 cache. The two CCXs connect to the rest of the chip over Infinity Fabric. The rather large iGPU takes up the central region of the die. It is based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, and features 8 workgroup processors (WGPs), or 16 compute units (CU) worth 1,024 stream processors. Other key components include four render backends worth 16 ROPs, and control logic. The GPU has its own 2 MB of L2 cache that cushions transfers to the Infinity Fabric.

Team Group today introduced the T-Force GC PRO, its new performance-segment M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD. The new T-Force GC PRO is not to be confused with the T-Force GE PRO that Team Group launched in January 2024, although the two appear almost identical. The newer GC PRO is powered by the same InnoGrit "Tacoma" IG5666 controller as the GE PRO, but with slightly toned down speeds.

The GC PRO comes in 2 TB and 4 TB capacity variants, with maximum sequential speeds of 12,500 MB/s reads, with 11,000 MB/s writes. For comparison, the flagship GE PRO does 14,000 MB/s max sequential reads, albeit with the same 11,000 MB/s max sequential writes. The GC PRO is hence designed to stike a slightly lower price point which could see it square off against pre-Max14um Phison-powered SSD models. Both the 2 TB and 4 TB models offer identical sequential transfer speeds, but differ with endurance—1,200 TBW and 2,400 TBW, respectively. Although a heatsink is recommended by the manufacturer, the drive comes with a graphene-coated metal-foil heatspreader. The company didn't reveal pricing, the drives are backed by 5-year warranties.

AMD is readying a successor to its Ryzen 7045 series "Dragon Range" mobile processor for gaming notebooks and portable workstations. While we don't know its processor model naming yet, the chip is codenamed "Fire Range." We are learning that it will retain the FL1 package as "Dragon Range," which means it will be pin-compatible. This would significantly reduce development costs for notebook OEMs, as they can simply carry over their mainboard designs from their notebooks based on "Dragon Range."

"Fire Range" is essentially a mobile BGA version of the upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processor. The FL1 package measures 40 mm x 40 mm in size, and has substrate for two CCDs and a cIOD, just like the desktop chip. "Fire Range" hence features one or two 4 nm "Zen 5" CCDs, depending on the processor model, and the 6 nm client I/O die. Much like "Dragon Range," the "Fire Range" chip will lack support for LPDDR5, and rely on conventional PC DDR5 memory in the SO-DIMM or CAMM2 form-factors. Besides the CPU core count consisting exclusively of full-sized "Zen 5" cores, the main flex for "Fire Range" over "Strix Point" will be its 28-lane PCIe Gen 5 root-complex, which can wire out the fastest discrete mobile GPUs, as well as drive multiple M.2 NVMe slots with Gen 5 wiring, and other high-bandwidth devices, such as Thunderbolt 4, USB4, or Wi-Fi 7 controllers wired directly to the processor.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading brand in gaming PC components, gaming laptops, and Hi-fi audio products, is proud to announce the CVN Z790D5 ARK FROZEN motherboard for the 14th Gen, 13th Gen, and 12th Gen Intel Core processors. The motherboard supports DDR5 memory and comes with four PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots for high-speed NVMe SSDs.

The design of the CVN Z790D5 ARK FROZEN is inspired by the powerful CVN-class battleships. The motherboard features a titanium gray color from the heat sinks to the PCB finish. The motherboard features a 14+1+1 digital power phase design with 90 A high-spec DrMOS VRMs with tantalum polymer capacitor to support high-end Intel Core i9 processors with ease. The CVN Z790D5 ARK FROZEN motherboard comes with a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port and Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3. The motherboard has single PCIe 5.0 X16 slot that's backward compatible with PCIe 4.0 devices such as the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards. There's also a bottom PCIe 4.0x4 slot for add-in devices such as RAID controllers, capture cards, and others.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced availability of the Micron 9550 NVMe SSD - the world's fastest data center SSD and industry leader in AI workload performance and power efficiency. The Micron 9550 SSD showcases Micron's deep expertise and innovation by integrating its own controller, NAND, DRAM and firmware into one world-class product. This integrated solution enables class-leading performance, power efficiency and security features for data center operators.

The Micron 9550 SSD delivers best-in-class performance with 14.0 GB/s sequential reads and 10.0 GB/s sequential writes to provide up to 67% better performance over similar competitive SSDs and enables industry-leading performance for demanding workloads such as AI. In addition, its random reads of 3,300 KIOPS are up to 35% better and random writes of 400 KIOPS are up to 33% better than competitive offerings.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of the Crucial P310 2230 Gen 4 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), which empowers enthusiasts of handheld gaming and users of mini PCs and ultrathin laptops to store more games and data-intensive content at their fingertips without sacrificing speed or performance. With read and write speeds of 7,100 and 6,000 megabytes per second (MB/s), respectively, and capacities up to 2 terabytes (TB), the P310 2230 SSD packs a unique punch, offering high performance and capacity in a compact, power-efficient form factor.

"Today's contemporary games are storage- and performance-hungry, and this is especially true for handheld gamers who want to be able to quickly access all their favorite games at their fingertips," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron's Commercial Products Group. "We've built our Crucial P310 2230 Gen 4 SSD to satisfy this need for speed and more capacity, providing a dynamic, power-efficient SSD that allows gamers to build their dream gaming libraries, load multiworld games faster and extend battery life for a richer gaming experience on the go."

MSI introduced the PRO B650-A WIFI, a feature-rich entry-mainstream Socket AM5 motherboard under its PRO series. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board features a 6-layer PCB, and includes heatsinks for all its M.2 slots, The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors and uses a 14+2+1 phase VRM solution that's capable of even the top 170 W TDP Ryzen 9 chips. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR5 DIMM slots, a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot, and two M.2 NVMe Gen 4 slots. The board's third M.2 Gen 4 slot is wired to the B650 FCH.

The MSI PRO B650-A WIFI offers a fairly premium onboard audio solution driven by a Realtek ALC4080 CODEC. USB connectivity includes a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 type-C port, three 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, four 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1, and a few USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 ports by internal headers. Display outputs include HDMI and DisplayPort. Networking connectivity includes a 2.5 GbE interface driven by a Realtek 8125B controller, and an AMD/Mediatek sourced WLAN module with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Besides the three M.2 Gen 4 slots, you get four SATA 6 Gbps ports. The board supports USB BIOS Flashback. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Western Digital stealthily introduced a spacious 8 TB variant of its performance WD Black SN850X M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSD. The drive debuted in 2022 and had topped off at 4 TB. The new 8 TB variant is priced at $849 for the bare drive (without heatsink, model number WDS800T2X0E), and $899 with the PS5-friendly heatsink (model: WDS800T2XHE). The drive combines an in-house controller by Western Digital, with KIOXIA-sourced 3D TLC NAND flash. We're not sure if it's using the same 112-layer BiCS5 that the 4 TB variant does.

Western Digital claims performance figures of up to 7200 MB/s sequential reads, up to 6600 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 1.2 million IOPS 4K random reads/writes. The read speed is a touch lesser than the 7300 MB/s max sequential reads of the 4 TB variant. The write endurance of the 8 TB variant is rated at an impressive 4,800 TBW. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor the drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 interface. Western Digital is backing these drives with 5-year warranties.

Gigabyte's new Stealth series of motherboards has to date only had a single product, the Z690 Aorus Elite Stealth, but now, Gigabyte has added its first Stealth board for AMD CPUs. The B650E Aorus Stealth Ice not only has all of its connectors on the back of the board, but it also has a white/silver PCB with a similarly coloured front and back cover. Apart from the DIMM slots, all connectors are also in somewhat matching colours, although judging by the pictures, the colours don't quite match on all the connectors and slots. That aside, the B650E Aorus Stealth Ice is a pretty competent board, as long as you're not interested in adding anything more than a graphics card and some NVMe SSDs, as it has zero additional PCIe expansion slots. It's a rather bold move by Gigabyte, but at the same time, most gamers and consumers don't tend to add PCIe devices to their computers outside of additional storage these days.

Besides the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, you get two M.2 sockets wired to the CPU, one PCIe 5.0—with its own, larger heatsink—and one PCIe 4.0, as well as a third PCIe 4.0 M.2 socket via the chipset. There's also support for four SATA 6 Gbps drives if more storage is needed. Gigabyte has also added an internal HDMI 1.4 port that's limited to 1080p30, which is intended to be used with Gigabyte's LCD Edge View display. Other connectivity on the back of the PCB includes a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) port, a USB 3.2 (5 Gbps) pin-header as well as the usual USB 2.0, fan headers and LED headers that you'd expect from a modern motherboard. The VRM design is a 12+2+2 design with a 60 Amp DrMOS configuration for the 12+2 phases for the CPU and GPU.

ASUS Republic of Gamers today announced the launch of the ROG NUC gaming PC. The first-ever ROG NUC PC is packed with cutting-edge technology and performance for AAA gaming and more.

Gaming, redefined
Featuring Intel Core Ultra 9 or Intel Core Ultra 7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or 4060 discrete graphics, the ROG NUC PC is a compact powerhouse that delivers unmatched gaming experiences. The high-performance hybrid architecture of Intel Core Ultra processors provides gamers with the power needed to stream, edit, record and play without skipping a beat. The 2.5-liter chassis is designed for quick system access to make upgrades and cleaning easy. Plus, the compatible ROG Raikiri Pro controller can be used to deliver a console-like experience for gamers seeking uncompromised performance and flexibility in a compact form factor.

SK hynix announced today that it developed PCB01, an SSD product with the industry's best specifications, for on-device AI PCs. The product marks the first case where the industry adopts the fifth generation of the 8-channel PCIe technology and brings innovation to performance including the data processing speed. The company expects the latest advancement in the NAND solution space to add to its success stories in the high-performance DRAM area led by HBM, enhancing its leadership in the overall AI memory space.

With a validation process with a global PC customer underway, SK hynix plans to mass produce and start shipping the products to both corporate customers and general consumers within this year. PCB01 comes with the capabilities of sequential read and write speeds of 14 GB and 12 GB per second, respectively, bringing the performance of an SSD to the level unseen before. The speeds allow the operation of a large language model or LLM, for AI training and inference, in a second.

In the contemporary digital landscape, Solid State Drives (SSDs) play a pivotal role by providing crucial attributes such as speed, reliability, and efficiency. These attributes facilitate rapid data retrieval, elevate system responsiveness, enable seamless multitasking, and significantly reduce boot times and application launch delays. Among the top contenders in the SSD market, Acer's FA100 M.2 SSD has successfully secured the top place, capturing the discerning consumer's attention with its cutting-edge performance and unwavering reliability. It stands out as the preferred choice for users who demand excellence in their storage solutions.

Acer FA100 NVMe PCIe SSD
The Acer FA100 M.2 SSD is renowned for its exceptional speed and efficiency, boasting read speeds up to 3300 MB/s and write speeds up to 2700 MB/s. It supports ECC error correction technology and the S.M.A.R.T. function, based on 4K LDPC, which enhances error correction capabilities and ensures secure data storage. Additionally, it supports multiple technologies such as modern standby and ultra-low power consumption. Designed to elevate user experience, the Acer FA100 combines high performance with robust durability, making it ideal for gamers, content creators, and professionals alike.

Western Digital has released a new budget friendly SSD that got a serious jump in model number, since the company decided to call it the SN5000. Its predecessor is the SN580 launched just under a year ago and price wise, it's the better option of the two. The new SN5000 uses the same BiCS 5 TLC NAND as the SN580 on the 500 GB to the 2 TB SKU, but according to Anandtech, the 4 TB uses BiCS 6 QLC NAND. The SN5000 is still a PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe drive, but the overall performance has been significantly improved. If we use the 1 TB SKU for comparison, then the sequential read speeds have gone up by 1 GB/s from 4150 MB/s to 5150 MB/s. The sequential write speed is up 750 MB/s from 4150 MB/s to 4900 MB/s.

As for random performance, the read IOPS are up from 600K IOPS to 730K IOPS and the write IOPS are up slightly from 750K to 770K. The 4 TB QLC SKU is said to deliver even better performance with the exception of the random read IOPS. The 1 TB SKU is said to have a write endurance of 600 TBW, but the 4 TB SKU only offers 1200 TBW. That's 0.33 drive writes per day (DWPD) for the 1 TB SKU vs. 0.16 DWPD for the 4 TB SKU, showing the weakness of the QLC NAND. A new feature for the SN5000 series compared to previous WD Blue NVMe drives is support for TGC Pyrite 2.01 encryption. The WD SN5000-series starts at US$70 for the 500 GB model, going up to US$80 for 1 TB, US$140 for 2 TB and topping out at US$280 for the 4 TB model. WD only seems to have the 500 GB model in stock, with all the others being available in 3-4 weeks time. All SKUs come with a five year warranty.

Panasonic Connect Canada, Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, today announced enhancements to the fully rugged and modular TOUGHBOOK 40 laptop. This second generation of the TOUGHBOOK 40, the Mk2, is the company's first PC to feature Intel Core Ultra processors, incorporating the latest CPU, GPU, and NPU technology advancements and up to 16 cores. Its dedicated NPU accelerates artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tasks for customers across law enforcement departments, federal agencies, and utility companies. Compared to the previous generation of Intel processors, these new processors deliver up to 143% faster AI application performance, 73% faster generative AI, and up to 40% lower processor power for AI-enhanced collaboration.

"We are dedicated to developing solutions that not only address the current needs of our customers, but also anticipate their future requirements," said Dominick Passanante, Vice President and GM of Panasonic Connect. "The TOUGHBOOK 40 Mk2, equipped with advanced AI capabilities, is another example of how we're providing the mobile workforce with tools to enhance productivity and efficiency on the job."

Gigabyte has quietly added a new SSD to its growing lineup and this time around it's something quite different. The drive is part of Gigabyte's new AI TOP (Trillions of Operations per Second) and was announced at Computex with little fanfare. At the show, the company only announced that it would have 150x the TBW compared to regular SSDs and that it was built specifically for AI model training. What that 150x means in reality is that the 2 TB version of the AI TOP 100E SSD will deliver no less than 219,000 TBW (TeraBytes Written), whereas most high-end 2 TB consumer NVMe SSDs end up somewhere around 1,200 TBW. The 1 TB version promises 109,500 TBW and both drives have an MTBF time of 1.6 million hours and a five-year warranty.

Gigabyte didn't reveal the host controller or the exact NAND used, but the drives are said to use 3D NAND flash and both drives have a LPDDR4 DRAM cache of 1 or 2 GB depending on the drive size. However, the pictures of the drive suggest it might be a Phison based reference design. The AI TOP 100E SSDs are standard PCIe 4.0 drives, so the sequential read speed tops out at 7,200 MB/s with the write speed for the 1 TB SKU being up to 6,500 MB/s, with the 2 TB SKU slightly behind at 5,900 MB/s. No other performance figures were provided. The drives are said to draw up to 11 Watts in use, which seems very high for PCIe 4.0 drives. No word on pricing or availability as yet.

EVGA designed an enthusiast segment AMD X670E chipset motherboard for the Socket AM5 platform, which never made it to the mass market. It had even planned to give the board its coveted Classified brand, and sell as the X670E Classified. Prototypes of this board fetched over $1,300 in auction. The board is built in the E-ATX form-factor like most of the EVGA Classified series motherboards; and packs a powerful CPU VRM, besides several overclocker-friendly features, such as top-oriented DDR5 memory slots, side-facing I/O (including power inputs), and in general, a decluttered layout that won't get in the way of extreme cooling solutions.

There were four such prototypes with Jiacheng Liu, a hardware enthusiast, each of which went under the hammer. The only trouble with these prototypes is that they're bare—they don't include heatsinks for the CPU VRM or the chipset, let alone heatsinks for the two M.2 Gen 5 NVMe slots that don't eat into the Gen 5 x16 PEG. Another problem with these boards is that they're not supported by EVGA, and only come with their initial BIOS that supports Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors, but not the upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5." We doubt if these even support the Ryzen 7000X3D series, which is probably the main reason the boards didn't fetch way more than $1,300 a piece at the auctions. Enthusiasts might still figure out a way to BIOS-mod and encapsulate the latest AGESA.