Accelerating the adoption of solid-state micro speakers in consumer audio products, MEMS audio and semiconductor pioneer xMEMS Labs today announced the availability of two innovative reference designs for purchase at the xMEMS web store.

The first unit, known as Harding, serves as xMEMS' reference design for 2-way True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds, while the other is for audiophile-level full-range in-ear-monitors (IEMs). Both are available for a limited time and in extremely limited quantities, with the goal of providing interested audio brands and manufacturers with accelerated time-to-market leveraging xMEMS' patented designs.

Qualcomm claimed that most Windows games will run (via emulation) on its upcoming series of ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite processors—during a "Windows on Snapdragon, a Platform Ready for your PC Games" presentation at the recently concluded GDC 2024 event. Issam Khalil (principal engineer) did not mention specific titles, but divulged that the Snapdragon Studios division has spent time working through "top games" on Steam. Qualcomm laptop-oriented Adreno GPU design is being hyped up as demonstrating an "80% performance uplift versus AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU," but the overall Snapdragon X Elite package is often compared to Apple's M3 chipsets (also ARM-based).

Reference laptops—running early Snapdragon X Elite silicon—have been distributed to favored partners. A semi-public showcase—recorded by Devin Arthur—revealed some promising gaming performance credentials on one of these devices. The self-proclaimed "Snapdragon Insider" was invited to the company's San Diego, California headquarters—Arthur happily reported that a red "23 W Snapdragon X Elite model" was demoing: "Baldur's Gate 3 running at 1080p hovering around 30 FPS, which is perfectly playable!" Specific visual settings were not listed in Arthur's substack article, or showcased during his brief video recording—but Qualcomm's claims about the Adreno GPU beating Team Red's best iGPU could be valid. Windows Central reckons that Control and Redout 2 have been demoed on Snapdragon X Elite devices.

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB reference model has reached UK shores, albeit very briefly and with a very low stock count—e-tailer AWD-IT Gaming PC (ADMI Ltd.) was the first shop in the region to offer XFX's Navi 31 XL partner card. Team Red's formerly Chinese market-exclusive Radeon RDNA 3 GPU has made its way West—as of late last year—but retail presence in Europe is less than inspiring. Circumstances could change—recent rumblings indicate that more custom options are incoming—GIGABYTE is readying a Gaming OC variant, possibly paving the way for a wider release through mainstream channels. PowerColor's Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC model has also been spotted on European price comparison engines.

UK buyers were treated to an initial batch of a dozen (or fewer) XFX Radeon RX 7900 GRE Reference graphics card, at £659.99 (~$832) including VAT and free delivery. AWD-IT's listing is inactive at the time of writing, but the SKU remains as a searchable asset on their web store. It appears that curious UK hardware enthusiasts have snapped up the first round of Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) curiosities, although the price point was nowhere near as attractive when lined up against past offerings within EU mainlands. For example, Italy's PSK Mega Store had reference stock priced at €542.66 (~$585) a piece, with a digital copy of AVATAR: Frontiers of Pandora bundled in. The XFX Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB SPEEDSTER MERC 310 model is currently discounted—£699.99 via Ebuyer UK—representing a very tempting higher-specced custom design prospect (going for only £40 more than the RX 7900 GRE) .

Sennheiser has launched its brand-new open-back HD 490 PRO reference studio headphones, purpose-built for producing, mixing and mastering. The circumaural, dynamic headphones feature highly precise sound reproduction and a very wide and realistic sound stage. This superior accuracy and range give producers, mixing and mastering engineers, as well as musicians, the transparency they need for critical mixing decisions and for confidently resolving any panning placement issues. The HD 490 PRO and HD 490 PRO Plus (includes additional accessories) are available now.

"If you compare today's music productions with that of ten, 20 years ago, you will notice how the massively increased computing power and complex parameter automation have changed the way in which music is made," shares Jimmy Landry, Category Market Manager for MI at Sennheiser. "In every genre, engineers and music creators are continuously pushing boundaries, creating extremely complex mixes that can be prone to so-called 'audio blind spots'. Mixes can be crowded and muddy, with too many instruments sitting at the same position and their frequencies competing. For the engineer or musician, it becomes difficult to hear each individual instrument or voice distinctly. This goes to show the importance of a good pair of studio headphones."

Intel is expanding immersion cooling collaborations with Taiwanese partners to strengthen its data center offerings for AI workloads. This includes developing an industry-first open IP complete immersion cooling solution and reference design. Partners like Kenmec and Auras Technology will be key in implementing Intel's advanced cooling roadmap. Intel is also cooperating with Taiwan's Industrial Research Institute on a new lab for certifying high-performance computing cooling technologies to international standards. With local ecosystem partners, Intel aims to accelerate next-generation cooling solutions for Taiwanese and global data centers. Advanced cooling allows packing more performance into constrained data center footprints, which is critical for AI's rapid growth. Intel touts a superfluid-based modular cooling system achieving 1500 Watts+ heat dissipation for high-density deployments.

Meanwhile, Kenmec offers a range of liquid cooling products, from Coolant Distribution Units (CDU) to customized Open Rack version 3 (ORv3) water cooling cabinets, with solutions already Intel-certified. Intel wants to solidify its infrastructure leadership as AI workloads surge by fostering an open, collaborative ecosystem around optimized cooling technologies. While progressing cutting-edge immersion and liquid cooling hardware, cultivating shared validation frameworks and best practices ensures broad adoption. With AI-focused data centers demanding ever-greater density, power efficiency, and reliability, cooling can no longer be an afterthought. Intel's substantial investments in a robust cooling ecosystem highlight it as a priority right alongside silicon advances. By lifting up Taiwanese partners as strategic cooling co-innovators, Intel aims to cement future competitiveness.

Take a look—or a listen—at the last ten years here at Drop, and you'll notice no shortage of award-winning amplifiers. Despite this decade-long discography, there's one type of amp we haven't touched. Now, it's finally coming down the tube. That's right: our first all-tube OTL amplifier is here—complete with a rock-solid DAC stage to complete any signal chain. Meet the Drop + xDuoo TA-84 OTL Tube Amp/DAC. Designed to deliver signature tube "warmth" without excess noise, this compact desktop powerhouse utilizes Output Transformerless (OTL) topology to manage signal without a transformer, greatly reducing distortion.

For the preamp phase, it features dual ECC-82 tubes; and for the power amp phase, it runs dual EL-84 pentodes—both popular options in the audiophile amplifier space. To hit that sweet spot with any set of headphones (or powered speakers), the TA-84 is also equipped with an ultra-precise stepped potentiometer for volume control, plus a gain switch to further control the output level. On Drop, and on your desk—it's tube time. Finally.

It was reported earlier this morning that Leadtek was preparing a new custom design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card - Tom's Hardware pointed out that South Korea's National Radio Research Agency had uploaded a registration for a "RTX 4070 AI BLOWER" VGA card on behalf of "Leadtek Research Inc." The article delves into a possible scenario, based on the model name alone, of Leadtek producing a cooling solution that reflects NVIDIA's blower-style reference design. Team Green has gained quite the reputation for being protective of that blueprint, despite its Founders Edition lineup of gaming-oriented cards shifting to a traditional cooling solution (back in the RTX 20-series days). Board partners are normally expected to devise their own/unique cooling solutions, and NVIDIA has mostly reserved the blower + vapor chamber combination for its professional GPU model lineups.

Leadtek has created a product page for their new custom card this afternoon, and it is immediately clear that this morning's prediction was somewhat correct. The WinFast RTX 4070 AI BLOWER 12G sports a "streamlined" yet boxy black cooling solution that appears to be closer in appearance to an NVIDIA RTX A-series professional card, although a flash of silver trim and logo on the fan provides a bit of "gamer" visual language. Leadtek's specification info states that their AI Blower cooler features an aluminium die cast housing alongside a copper finned vapor chamber. The lone mounted fan is said to have a 50,000 hour operational lifespan thanks to a special internal arrangement: "WinFast double ball bearing fan provides better reliability, higher dust resistance levels, and moreso keeps friction and noise to a minimum." Tom's Hardware posited that Leadtek's custom card would be marketed as an enterprise product (for AI processing) - the freshly uploaded product page does position it for those purposes, but the rundown also mentions its supposed gaming performance prowess.

We have seen a few examples of custom design/board partner Radeon RX 7600 graphics card models via leaks over the past two weeks - and AMD's alleged reference design has made an appearance this weekend, only fours days prior to the official product launch date (May 25). The leaked images once again come courtesy of VideoCardz - the set of two photos show a dual-fan setup on a mostly black shroud with the company's simple "Radeon" logo positioned near the top - this design seems to be missing an underlining strip of RGB (as seen on the big boy cards).

The picture of the card's flipside depicts a very plain looking backplate. The overall aesthetic is not too far removed from the existing high-end Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX reference siblings, although this leaked entry-level offering is tiny in comparison - it is reported to be just under 21 centimeters in length (versus the 7900 XT at 27.6 cm and 7900 XTX at 28.7 cm). The RX 7600 MBA (made-by-AMD) card is said to be two slots wide.

Eiswolf 2 AiO - now also for custom designs of RTX 4080/4090 and RX 7900XT/XTX GPUs! Alphacool presents additional innovative solutions for cooling Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4080 and 4090 and AMD's RX 7900XT/XTX graphics cards.

The enormous waste heat of the new graphics card generation is excellently dissipated with these coolers. The very good water flow and the large cooling surface are due to the particularly filigree fin structure. The jet plate with revised inflow engine also distributes the water perfectly on the cooling fins. The complete chrome plating of the cooler not only provides resistant protection against acids, scratches and damage, but also achieves a beautiful homogeneity and remarkable shine. The Aurora design of the cooler is kept visually calm and simple. This is evident not only in the cooler's design, but also in the wonderfully even lighting achieved via digitally addressable RGB LEDs.

Even more performance for RTX 4070 Ti GPUs! With the Eisblock Aurora cooler, Alphacool presents a new, innovative solution for active water cooling of Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards in the reference design.

In order to dissipate the enormous waste heat of this graphics card generation, in the best possible way, numerous optimizations have been carried out on the water cooler compared to the cooler models of the 30XX card generation. The fin structure was adapted and enables an optimal water flow while simultaneously increasing the cooling surface. The modified nozzle plate with improved Inflow Engine ensures the best possible distribution of water on the cooling fins. The fully chrome-plated copper base is resistant to acids, scratches and damage. In addition, the chrome plating provides homogeneity and reflectivity that cannot be achieved by nickel plating.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference-design isn't a first-party product with limited availability like the NVIDIA Founders Edition; but rather a classic reference-design that's sold by AMD's add-in board partners under their marquee (without sticking their own labels on the product). AMD and its partners internally refer to reference-design cards as "MBA cards" (made by AMD cards). The company gave us a technical overview of the reference-design PCB. As with every reference AMD PCB for the past several generations, the RX 7900 XTX PCB has a premium selection of components. The card uses an expensive 14-layer PCB with 4 additional layers of 2-oz copper. 14-layer PCBs are typically used with enterprise-grade products, and graphics cards typically tend to have PCB layer counts of around 10. The PCB also uses ITEQ IT-170GRA epoxy and laminate materials, which enable a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 175 °C (no, the GPU won't get anywhere near as hot).

The reference-design RX 7900 XTX PCB draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. With the typical board power of the RX 7900 XTX rated at 355 W, this falls inside the 375 total power-draw capability when you add up the 150 W input from the two connectors, and 75 W from the PCIe slot. AMD worked to minimize power-draw spikes at least from the PCIe slot. Excursions, if any, should be localized to the 8-pin power connectors. The card features 20-phase VRM solution, using "high efficiency" DrMOS power-stage phases (could be very high current). The "Navi 31" GPU is surrounded by 12 GDDR6 memory chips given the GPU's 384-bit memory interface. Two of these memory pads could end up unused on the RX 7900 XT, which has a 320-bit memory interface. Display outputs of the RX 7900 series include two standard-size DisplayPort 2.1, one USB type-C with DisplayPort passthrough; and one HDMI 2.1a.

Intel's upcoming family of Arc Alchemist mobile graphics cards is just around the corner, and we are already starting to spot the company's reference systems utilizing the latest dedicated graphics. Thanks to the findings of @momomo_us, we have information that Intel is readying the NUC X15 laptop reference system codenamed "Alder Country." There are two SKUs, LAPAC71G and LAPAC71H, each with similar CPU and GPU configurations. Carrying an Intel Core i7-12700H processor with 14 cores and 20 threads, the CPU is paired with either Arc A550M on the LAPAC71G SKU or Arc A730M on LAPAC71H SKU.

As a reminder, Intel already made such NUC X15 reference laptop designs with Tiger Lake processors. However, they came with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 graphics instead of Intel Arc Alchemist. Implementations of NUC X15 appeared with partners such as ADATA XPG Xenia laptop. We could expect to see more OEMs adapt Alder Country if the performance of Arc Alchemist graphics proves good.

That NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce "Ada Lovelace" graphics architecture will feature significant increases in board power across the lineup, is widely reported, with the top AD102 silicon as the RTX 3090-successor allegedly drawing over 400 W. All that power drawn converts to heat that needs to be dissipated, and so we'll see proportionately larger cooling solutions. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA rumors, claims that the reference design AD102 board features three fans.

To be clear, the reference design board is not the same thing as the Founders Edition product. The reference-design is an internal prototype NVIDIA develops the product around, and it rarely makes public appearances. The Founders Edition is a technically a "custom design" card from NVIDIA, that features higher clock speeds than reference, and is known for a high level for industrial design that sets standards for board partners and their custom-designs. We know from a May 2022 rumor and alleged photo leak that the Dual-Axial Flow-through concept of air-based cooling solutions, will make a comeback with Ada Founders Edition cards. and its design appears to have the usual layout of two large fans; unless NVIDIA somehow found room for a third fan. We'll know soon enough.

Audeze is a brand extensively covered on TechPowerUp and renowned for its planar magnetic headphones and in-ear monitors. With the recently announced flagship class LCD-5, the company unveiled the culmination of several years of R&D and new technology packed into a $4500 set of headphones that is understandably well beyond the reach of the average end user, however in a working example of trickle-down technology we see today two announcements that help in this aspect while showcasing also what's to come from the USA-based audio brand. First up, Audeze announced 11-time Grammy award-winning engineer/producer Manny Marroquin as its new Head of Professional Products, with Marroquin aiming to bring his music industry and production experience to the Audeze team. Audeze and Manny Marroquin are collaborating to create a new series of audio products—called the MM Series—focused on using cutting-edge technology and engineering to deliver better results more efficiently for working audio professionals.

The first of the products under the MM Series also launched alongside in the form of the MM-500, which takes several cues from the LCD-5. It features a new chassis design for comfort over long sessions at a reduced mass of 495 grams compared to the 600+ g heavyweights under the Audeze umbrella. The MM-500 is designed to perform both inside and outside the studio, with low impedance and high sensitivity that make it easy to drive from any console, interface or laptop. It is an open-back, over-ear set of planar magnetic headphones with Audeze's Uniforce voice coil over an ultra-thin diaphragm, and utilizes Fazor waveguides coupled with Fluxor magnets. The transducer is 90 mm in size and the use of the LCD-5 style frame and headband design combined with single-sided magnets also indicates the MM-500 is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the prosumer and audiophile market. The Audeze MM-500 costs $1699 and will be available for purchase soon. Read past the break for reactions on the collboration as well as more information about the new product itself.

PowerColor's website has begun showing what is very likely the made-by-AMD (reference design) Radeon RX 6900 XT LC graphics card, as discovered by momomo_us. It bears the PowerColor SKU "AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-MW2DHC," compared to the air-cooled reference version's SKU of "AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-M2DHC." The webpage doesn't include any pictures. Some of the oldest leaks of the reference RX 6900 XT LC also pointed to a Sapphire branded card, which means a retail launch through AIB partners cannot be ruled out; as an SI or OEM-only launch would be handled by AMD, without involving AIBs.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT LC features a factory-fitted all-in-one liquid cooling solution, and possibly the new "XTXH" variant of the "Navi 21" silicon, which is able to sustain up to 10% higher engine clocks than the stock RX 6900 XT. AMD has reportedly gone a step further, and also given the LC version 15% faster memory, running at 18.48 Gbps data-rate, and so its performance could be very interesting to see. Some early testing is already out.

Sonarworks, the company behind precision audio software used by Grammy-Award winning music creators in over 70,000 professional recording studios around the world, announces today the launch of its all-new and improved speaker and headphone calibration software SoundID Reference (currently known as Sonarworks Reference). Continuing its commitment to making a simple and affordable software that delivers reliable reference sound for creators, Sonarworks is adding new features and usability updates including Custom Target, Translation Check, improved systemwide drivers for Windows users, and many other enhancements to the user interface.

"We're excited to finally release what we've been working on for the last year," said Martins Popelis, Co-founder and CPO of Sonarworks. "We've taken in all the feedback from our Reference users and worked hard to incorporate some of the long-awaited features. Moreover, we have simplified the user interface and have added many improvements to streamline the overall workflow."

ASRock has today published a new product on the company website. The new ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card is the latest addition to the company's offerings. Featuring regular, reference-designed PCB found in the Made-by-AMD (MBA) cards, the ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT even features all of the same specifications as the reference model: base clock 1825 MHz, game clock 2015 MHz, boost clock 2250 MHz, memory clock 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). The card itself isn't changed one bit. Even the stickers found on it (which are usually AIB's logos) are still AMD's. The only thing that differs this card from AMD's offerings is the box that the graphics card comes in. That is the only part that features ASRock's branding. When it comes to the pricing and availability, we do not know when this card will arrive, however, assuming the reference PCB design, it will feature a reference price of $999.

AMD is expected to manufacture its reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 graphics cards only "through early 2021," according to a tweet by Scott Herkelman, Corporate VP and GM for the AMD Radeon brand, in response to a question by Daniel Rohrpasser. The "MBA" (made by AMD) reference-design cards will undergo production runs only until early 2021, beyond which the company will rely entirely on sales of custom-design boards by its add-in-board (AIB) partners to sell the RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT.

Launch of custom-design RX 6800 series cards are closely following that of the MBA cards, which opened to sales on November 18. Most AMD AIB partners have already announced their custom-design RX 6800 series products. This isn't particularly unusual, as AMD tends to produce MBA cards only for the initial few months following a new GPU launch, beyond which custom-design cards are expected to take over sales. The MBA cards are sold through AIB partners, with negligible modifications such as brand stickers.

Unlike NVIDIA, AMD still relies on its add-in board (AIB) partners to sell reference design (made by AMD) graphics cards, and Sapphire just announced its lineup. The company unveiled its reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 cards. The RX 6800 XT is characterized by its triple-slot cooling solution, while the RX 6800 makes do with a slimmer dual-slot one. Both cards are based on the 7 nm "Navi 21" silicon and feature 16 GB of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, cushioned by 128 MB of on-die Infinity Cache.

The RX 6800 XT is configured with 72 out of 80 RDNA2 compute units on the "Navi 21" silicon, working out to 4,608 stream processors, 72 ray accelerators, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The engine clock of the RX 6800 XT boosts up to 2.25 GHz. The RX 6800, on the other hand, features 60 out of 80 RDNA2 compute units, which make up 3,840 stream processors, 60 ray accelerators, 240 TMUs, the same 128 ROPs, and the same memory subsystem as the RX 6800 XT. Given that these are reference cards, Sapphire could price them at AMD's baseline, with the RX 6800 XT going for $649, and the RX 6800 at $579.

NVIDIA has today updated its video encode and decode matrix with references to the latest Ampere GPU family. The video encode/decode matrix represents a table of supported video encoding and decoding standards on different NVIDIA GPUs. The matrix has a reference dating back to the Maxwell generation of NVIDIA graphics cards, showing what video codecs are supported by each generation. That is a useful tool for reference purposes, as customers can check if their existing or upcoming GPUs support a specific codec standard if they need any for video reproduction purposes. The update to the matrix comes in a form of Ampere GPUs, which are now present there.

For example, the table shows that, while supporting all of the previous generations of encoding standards, the Ampere based GPUs feature support for HEVC B Frame standard. For decoding purposes, the Ampere lineup now includes support for AV1 8-bit and 10-bit formats, while also supporting all of the previous generation formats. For a more detailed look at the table please go toNVIDIA's website here.

Intel today released and updated version of its "Architecture Instruction Set Extensions and Future Features Programming" Reference document with the latest advanced matrix extension (AMX) programming reference. This gives us some insights into AMX and how it works. While we will not go in too much depth here, the AMX is pretty simple. Intel describes it as the following: "Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel AMX) is a new 64-bit programming paradigm consisting of two components: a set of 2-dimensional registers (tiles) representing sub-arrays from a larger 2-dimensional memory image, and an accelerator able to operate on tiles, the first implementation is called TMUL (tile matrix multiply unit)." In other words, this represents another matrix processing extension that can be used for a wide variety of workload, mainly machine learning processing. The first microarchitecture that will implement the new extension is Sapphire Rapids Xeon processor. You can find more about AMX here.

Although still a blurry-cam pic, this new picture of three GeForce RTX 3080 "Ampere" graphics card reference heatsinks on a factory-floor reveals exactly how the cooling solution works. The main heat-dissipation component appears to be a vapor chamber base, above which there are four flattened copper heat pipes, which hold the cooler's four aluminium fin arrays together. The first array is directly above the CPU/memory/VRM area, and consists of a dense stack of aluminium fins that make up a cavity for the fan on the obverse side of the graphics card. This fan vents air onto the first heatsink element, and some of its air is guided by the heatsink to two trapezium shaped aluminium fin-stacks that pull heat from the flattened heat pipes, and get airflow from the obverse fan.

The heat pipes make their way to the card's second dense aluminium fin-stack. This fin-stack is as thick as the card itself, as there's no PCB here. This fin-stack is ventilated by the card's second fan, located on the reverse side, which pulls air through this fin-stack and vents upward. We attempted to detail the cooling solution, the card, and other SKU details in an older article. We've also added a picture of a Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 56 Pulse graphics card. This NVIDIA heatsink is essentially like that, but with the second fan on the other side of the card to make it look more complicated than it actually is.

With the introduction of AMD's AIB partners' custom designs for the Navi-based RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics cards, rumors (ie, reports) started to float around of AMD's discontinuation of their reference designs. However, AMD's own Scott Herkelman confirmed via Twitter that the company isn't transitioning its reference designs to an EOL (End of Life) status, and that they will continue to be offered in the traditional venues.

However, Scott did say that AMD is in the stage of transitioning their AIB partners fully to their own custom designs. This means that AMD will likely keep the market cornered on blower-style designs, that can be bought by users planning to stick their own aftermarket cooling solution and just want the cheapest possible card. This way, AIB partners will always sell Radeon cards under their own brand names, instead of something like "ASUS Radeon RX 5700".