According to some testing performed by the team behind RPCS3, a free and open-source emulation software for Sony's PlayStation 3, Intel's Alder Lake processors are enjoying a hefty performance boost when E-Cores is disabled. First of all, the Alder Lake processors feature a hybrid configuration with high-performance P-cores and low-power E-cores. The P-cores are based on Golden Cove architecture and can execute AVX-512 instructions with ease. However, the AVX-512 boost is only applicable when E-cores are disabled as software looks at the whole package. Officially, Alder Lake processors don't support AVX-512, as the processor's little E-cores cannot execute AVX-512 instruction.

Thanks to the team behind the RPCS3 emulator, we have some information and tests that suggest that turning E-cores off gives a performance boost to the emulation speed and game FPS. With E-Cores disabled, and only P-cores left, the processor can execute AVX-512 and gets a higher ring ratio. This means that latency in the ring bus is presumably lower. The team benchmarked Intel Core i9-12900K, and Core i9-11900K processors clocked at 5.2 GHz for tests. The Alder Lake chip had disabled E-cores. In God of War: Ascension, the Rocket Lake processor produced 68 FPS, while Alder Lake produced 78 FPS, representing around 15% improvement.

According to an industry report by IC Insights, AMD will see a yearly growth rate of no less than 65 percent this year, compared to 2020, whereas Intel is expected to have a slightly negative growth rate of one percent. The report includes the top 25 semiconductor sales leaders, ranked by growth rate, although it should be pointed out that some of them are foundries and not just semiconductor companies.

AMD is closely followed by MediaTek, which is expected to reach a 60 percent growth rate this year, followed by Nvidia at 54 percent and Qualcomm and 51 percent growth. The only surprise in the top five is PRC based SMIC, which saw a 39 percent growth this year, despite, or maybe because of the US sanctions against various Chinese IC makers.

TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) and Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation ("SSS") today jointly announced that TSMC will establish a subsidiary, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. ("JASM"), in Kumamoto, Japan to provide foundry service with initial technology of 22/28-nanometer processes to address strong global market demand for specialty technologies, with SSS participating as a minority shareholder.

Construction of JASM's fab in Japan is scheduled to begin in the 2022 calendar year with production targeted to begin by the end of 2024. The fab is expected to directly create about 1,500 high-tech professional jobs and to have a monthly production capacity of 45,000 12-inch wafers. The initial capital expenditure is estimated to be approximately US$7 billion with strong support from the Japanese government.

Under definitive agreements reached between TSMC and SSS, SSS plans to make an equity investment in JASM of approximately US $0.5 billion, which will represent a less than 20% equity stake in JASM. The closing of the transaction between TSMC and SSS is subject to customary closing conditions.

Santa Monica Studio, a video game developer, seated in Los Angeles and owned by PlayStation Studios, is the creator of the highly successful game God of War. Today, the company announced that they would be releasing a God of War port for PC owners, entering a whole new market. The PC port of the game will allow thousands of players to enjoy the story of Kratos and his adventures with a considerable boost to graphics. According to a company announcement, the PC port will allow fine-tuning of graphics settings, including a range of new technologies to back it.

Some essential upgrades over the console port include native 4K rendering and an unlimited frame rate. The company stated that the ambient occlusion pipeline had been upgraded with GTAO and SSDO tech, creating unique visuals. In addition to that, the game will feature support for NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and Reflex low-latency technology. For controllers, the game will feature support for Sony's DualSense and DualShock4 controllers. And last but not least, ultrawide gamers are in luck as well, as the game will support a 21:9 aspect ratio. The game is going to be available on January 14, 2022, on the Steam storefront.

For some PC visuals, check out the images and the video below.

It's confirmed: one of the most widely acclaimed games from the PS4 era is finally coming to your PC of choice early next year - January 14th, to be precise. The announcement was done by Sony via a blog post, quickly followed by a YouTube trailer (which you can watch below). A Steam store page has been made available since then; the game will be available for $49, and includes all previously-released digital content.

God of War on PC will be more than a straight PC port, according to Sony. The game will feature support for 21:9 resolution, various controller types, and will support a full 4K renderer for machines that have the required processing and graphics grunt. Sony also promises "a wide range of graphical presets and options so you can fine-tune your visual experience based on your setup. From higher resolution shadows and improved screen space reflections to enhancements to the ambient occlusion pipeline with GTAO and SSDO - God of War on the PC can create striking visual quality unique to the platform." Beyond that, Sony Santa Monica has been working closely with NVIDIA, and will be integrating the company's DLSS and Reflex technologies into the game - DLSS by itself should make a 4K output resolution much easier to achieve.

Remember that rumour from last week about TSMC potentially building a fab in Japan and partnering up with Sony? Well, the deal is on and the fab is set to start construction in 2022, with production expected to start sometime in 2024. However, as mentioned, the fab isn't going to be using any cutting edge technology when it comes to the process node, since it's intended for imaging sensors and EV components.

The new fab is said to focus on 28 and 22 nm nodes, according to Tim Culpan, who writes for Bloomberg and who has been reporting on TSMC for at least the last decade. This is backed up by the Nikkei that reports that the US$7 billion fab will make chips in the 20-nm range, without going into further details beyond mentioning these nodes are over a decade old. That said, there are still plenty of products made on older nodes than that, as not everything has to be built on a cutting edge node and many components wouldn't benefit from a smaller node. Regardless, this fab won't help with the current shortage of components, but will hopefully lead to better availability of certain components in the future.

There doesn't seem to be a single month where rumours about new TSMC plants around the world are popping up and this time around it looks like there might be a joint venture with Sony in Japan. According to the Nikkei, the Japanese government is likely to be involved and might foot as much as half of the US$7 billion bill.

Another much more unknown player, Japanese auto parts maker Denso is also said to be a potential participant in the new fab. Denso is said to supply Toyota among others and with a shift towards more EVs, this might not be such a strange move. The new fab is expected to be located in Kumamoto Prefecture on land owned by Sony. It should be noted that Sony already manufactures image sensors here and the factory was hit badly by a large earthquake back in 2016, which led to a global shortage of certain image sensors.

Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the new SRS-NS7 wireless neckband speaker, the latest addition to its wearable speaker lineup, and the WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter. The SRS-NS7 provides an immersive home theater experience and when paired with the supplied wireless transmitter, customers can experience tailored sound for a new way of listening. The WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter is also sold separately so customers can enjoy the same cinematic audio when using select Sony headphones.

The SRS-NS7 transforms the way customers experience their favorite Dolby Atmos movies thanks to Sony's unique 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer," said Tyler Ishida, Deputy President for Consumer Business Group, Sony Electronics Inc. "With powerful audio, long-lasting battery and an extremely comfortable design, this product is made for non-stop entertainment."

Sony Electronics Inc. today announced two new wireless headphones - the WF-C500 earbuds and the WH-XB910N over-ear model. With easy to use Bluetooth pairing, long lasting battery life and unique sound customization features, these headphones make it easier than ever to listen to favorite music and content in even better quality.

"Sony strives to deliver a premium and best-in-class listening experience with every audio product it introduces, and these new additions meet that demanding standard," said Tyler Ishida, Deputy President for Consumer Business Group, Sony Electronics Inc. "Whether customers are looking for bass-heavy cans or compact go-anywhere buds, our new headphones offer something for everyone."

AMD's Fidelity Super Resolution (FSR) tech is being implemented in RPSCS3, one of the foremost emulators for Sony's Playstation 3. The emulator allows PC users to play otherwise PS3-exclusive games via software emulation. The nature of this emulation, however, leads to a couple important aspects. One pertains to performance: emulating non-existent hardware is one of the most resource-hungry workloads one can think of, and is highly dependent on the emulator's coding quality. Another is that since this is a software solution, it does allow to changes in maximum render resolution, for example, or the addition of visual effects or other modifications to the rendering pipeline. One limitation of this approach is that game support has to be added almost manually, checking and correcting the emulators' behaviors according to the software being played.

AMD's FSR tech been received with a rather enthusiastic response. This is in part due to its open source nature, but also because of its apparent ease of implementation and its higher compatibility with graphics cards new, old, and from the competition - unlike NVIDIA's DLSS, which requires specific hardware (Tensor cores) to be present in the GPU chip, locking it to only the latest NVIDIA products. This nature of FSR has led to its integrationn on the RPCS3 emulator, promising a relatively easy to implement performance and image quality increase compared to the original rendering pipeline, including 4K upscaling. Check after the break for a video of the tech in action (spoiler: the quality difference isn't nearly as close as what the thumbnail implies).

be quiet!, the German manufacturer for premium PC components, is proud to announce that its MC1 M.2 SSD cooler is a perfect match for the brand-new PlayStation 5 SSD expansion capabilities.

For those running out of storage space on the built-in solid-state drive of the PlayStation 5, Sony has recently released a firmware update that unlocks the M.2 SSD expansion slot, allowing users to add an additional solid-state drive to the console. These drives can run very hot, which could cause SSD throttling, prompting Sony to recommend only using M.2 SSDs with a heatsink. be quiet! offers gamers the ideal solution with its MC1 cooler, which is compatible with any single-sided or double-sided 2280 M.2 SSD that does not feature a built-in heatsink. It is also one of the only M.2 SSD coolers on the market compact enough to perfectly fit inside the expansion slot of the PlayStation 5 and able to cool double-sided SSDs, protecting the memory modules on both sides of the PCB from overheating. The result is much lower and safer SSD temperatures, which translates into trouble-free gaming sessions and an increased lifespan of the drive.

It's been a long time coming, but Sony is finally ready to allow all of its PS5 customers to get access to the M.2 SSD storage expansion slot, courtesy of the September system update, which lands tomorrow. It's not the only feature that the new update will bring though, as Sony has also worked on some user experience enhancements when it comes to navigating the UI, as well as some improvements to the PlayStation Now UI.

Sony has also added support for 3D audio via the speakers built into TVs, although it's not entirely clear what this brings from the details on Sony's blog post. However, it does appear to use the microphone on the DualSense controllers to measure the acoustics of the room to enhance the audio as much as possible. The Pulse 3D wireless headset is getting access to the built in equalizer settings with this update.

Sony's latest gaming console, PlayStation 5, has been selling at loss up until August 4th, when the company announced that the new console is now profitable. However, it seems like Sony is trying to extend those profits even further with the latest revision of PlayStation 5 that is seemingly taking a step backward. According to the latest report, Sony has updated its PlayStation 5 internal design and the console is now featuring a smaller heatsink, which you can see below. The new revision is featuring a significantly smaller heatsink and an absence of the large copper cold plate. The fan that cools the heatsink is also reduced, resulting in a complete thermal downgrade.

While there was no in-depth testing of the cooling performance, the exhaust system of the new PS5 revision is spitting out 3-5 degrees Celsius higher temperatures. That is just measuring the air coming out, where the actual SoC could run hotter by an even larger margin. As we wait for more testing of the new PS5 revisions, we have to wonder why Sony opted to cut corners on such an important piece, that ultimately provides the console with longevity, due to cooler silicon.

At the end of July, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced the specifications and guidelines for expanding the console's built-in internal storage and confirmed that the PlayStation 5 (PS5) will now support M.2 SSDs for users to expand storage for game files and applications on the PS5. Today, TEAMGROUP's gaming brand, T-FORCE, is unveiling the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 PCIe SSD with the industry's first-ever white graphene heat sink. The latest M.2 SSD, made specifically for expanding storage and will be available for gamers around the world on major e-commerce platforms in October, 2021.

The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 SSD is being announced today by TEAMGROUP and is equipped with the industry's first-ever white graphene heat sink. The M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, created specifically to expand PS5 storage, can reach read/write speeds of up to 7,400/7,000 MB/s and offers storage capacities of up to 8 TB. The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 SSD meets the specifications for the PS5 in heat sink size, read/write speeds, and supported capacities, allowing PS5 gamers to install it easily and get the storage they need instantly.

Sony has recently enabled the M.2 slot found in the PlayStation 5 with a beta update which allows users to upgrade the storage of their device with a compatible PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD. The PlayStation 5 can only install games to the internal storage as external storage is not fast enough so the introduction of this capability will help expand the 825 GB (667.2 GB usable) of internal storage. Sony recommends that users select a PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD with sequential read speeds of 5500 Mbps or higher but have yet to certify any specific models as compatible. Seagate has confirmed that their FireCuda 530 SDD which is offered with capacities from 500 GB to 4 TB will be compatible while various models from Corsair, Sabrent, and Western Digital also appear to meet the speed requirements. Sony should release this feature to non-beta users in the near future and also notes that some games may have reduced performance when running with an M.2 SSD.

According to NPD data, Xbox just set a new hardware sales record the past month of June in the U.S., outselling PlayStation to the tune of a cool $200 million. The Xbox division cumulatively brought in a total $401 million dollars in the past month of June, marking a year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth to the tune of 112%. That large, $401 million number also marks a new record for Xbox and its Microsoft parent - the previous revenue record for the Xbox division was set way back in 2011. ten years later, it can be said that Xbox is better than ever before.

That same $401 million revenue from Xbox hardware clearly puts Sony's PlayStation in the rear-view mirror, as the company "only" achieved a $207 million revenue for June 2021 - a 1% decline YoY. That Microsoft managed to pull this off in the hardware shortage scenario we currently live in is impressive; and it does speak to the amount of pent-up demand that's still vying to enter the company's coffers. The record comes a month after Microsoft announced the deployment of Xbox Series X server blades to its xCloud programme, which occurred on June 26th. It appears likely that the company was distributing its Series X production capabilities between the retail sector and its own xCloud service before June 26th (with the additional time required for installation and all that entails), which would explain the sudden record in June. As Microsoft freed xCloud-bound capacity to the retail sector, the record thus ensued.

Sony Interactive Entertainment ("SIE") announced today that SIE has completed the acquisition of Nixxes Software B.V. ("Nixxes"), an industry-leading Dutch studio with more than 20 years of experience in game development and optimization. Based in Utrecht, Netherlands, effective immediately, Nixxes will join PlayStation Studios Technology, Creative & Services Group to provide high quality in-house technical and development capabilities for PlayStation Studios.

"I highly respect Nixxes and am excited for this very experienced team to become part of the world-class development community at SIE," said Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios. "They have a passion for improving games and for delivering the best possible experience for gamers. Nixxes will be a strong asset for everyone across PlayStation Studios, helping our teams focus on their most important goal, which is to create unique PlayStation content at the best possible quality."

Sony Interactive Entertainment ("SIE") announced today that SIE has completed the acquisition of Housemarque Oy ("Housemarque"), a leading game developer and long-time partner of SIE. Recognized for its extensive experience in the arcade-shooter genre as well as strong creative and technical capabilities, Housemarque has developed eight titles exclusive to PlayStation consoles including Returnal, Nex Machina and Alienation.

With the recent release of the hugely popular PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal, Housemarque evolved its trademark style gameplay by weaving a haunting narrative into a 3D bullet-hell shooter. Based in Helsinki, Finland, Housemarque will join the global development operation of PlayStation Studios and will be the 13th studio to join the PlayStation Studios family.

At its IR Day 2021 Game & Network Services Segment, Sony themselves have spilled the cat out of the bag regarding ports from their first-party studios to the PC realm. Case in point: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, developed by naughty Dog, will be releasing on the PC platform at some point in the future. The information is tucked away at page 26 of Sony's documentation. This comes as no surprise, considering other tidbits Sony shared regarding its PC initiative: the company achieved a 250% ROI (Return on Investment) with the port of Horizon: Zero Dawn to PC and more recently Days Gone, meaning that porting costs were more than recouped.

Of course, the ROI also has to take into account the potential decrease in value of the PlayStation brand with the relative loss of exclusivity, but this doesn't seem much different from Microsoft's strategy of delivering console exclusives that still make it onto the PC space (and the company has been doubling down on those efforts, and they surely wouldn't be doing so if they were losing money).

Cyberpunk 2077 was originally released on December 10th for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation as the most anticipated game of 2020. The game launched with a multitude of performance issues and bugs which made the game nearly unplayable on the PlayStation 4 and as such was promptly removed from the store. CD Projekt Red has worked to improve the game's performance with various hotfixes and patches and it appears Sony is happy with this progress as the game has been reinstated on the store after 6 months. The game is now officially recommended to be run on PS4 Pro or PS5 for the optimal experience however the PS4 will continue to be supported.

CD Projekt RedYou can play the game on PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation 5. Additionally, a free next gen upgrade will be available for all owners of the PS4 version of Cyberpunk 2077 in the second half of 2021. Users may continue to experience some performance issues with the PS4 edition while we continue to improve stability across all platforms. The PS4 Pro and PS5 versions of the game will provide the best experience on PlayStation.

Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most hyped AAA game releases in 2020, has been out for a while now. However, not too long ago, Sony, the maker of PlayStation, has pulled the game from its PlayStation Store amidst negative reviews and criticism that the game received. This has resulted in significantly lower sales of the game, as millions of potential buyers were left without an option to purchase it. But not everything is too dark. In the announcement made by CD Projekt RED, the game developer behind Cyberpunk 2077, things are looking bright for the game as Cyberpunk 2077 is returning to the PlayStation store on June 21st. You can see the quote from CDPR below.

CD Projekt REDIn relation to Current Report no. 66/2020 of 18 December 2020, the Management Board of CD PROJEKT S.A. with a registered office in Warsaw hereby publicly discloses the decision by Sony Interactive Entertainment to reinstate the availability of the digital edition of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation Store, effective on 21 June 2021.

Ming-Chi Kuo a renowned Apple analyst has recently predicted that we will see at least three new XR products from Facebook, Sony, and Apple in 2022. These predictions come from an analysis of recent lens orders from Taiwanese manufacturer Yujingguang by the three companies. Yujingguang is expected to supply the lenses used in the upcoming Oculus Quest 3, and PlayStation VR 2 along with being a "key-supplier" for Apple's headset. These new lenses will offer an increased field of view and improved image clarity over existing options. The company expects to supply 50% of the demand for Oculus Quest 3 equal to 22 million units while their exact supply for the devices from Sony and Apple is unknown.

CD Projekt RED (CDPR), the maker of popular games like Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, has just published company's quarterly earnings report. The video game maker is responsible for the development of the most anticipated game in the year 2020—Cyberpunk 2077. Featuring Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, the game was teased multiple times with an amazing delay that happened three times. A bug-ridden debut happened and the overall gaming experience was very unpleasant, leading to an unprecedented move from PlayStation maker Sony. The Japanese company has delisted Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation store, which caused a big impact to CDPR's sales figures.

Today, we got the exact details. The Q1 numbers are down, with net profits down by 67% to 32.5 million zlotys (Polish national currency), revenue down 2% to 197.6 million zlotys, and selling costs that soared 79.6% to 62.1 million zlotys. The company shares have tumbled down by around 10% since the Q1 report, closely following the outlook of the quarter. What remains for CDPR is to re-engage the Cyberpunk 2077 community and repair the game so it can reach its full potential, and give players a chance to finally enjoy the whole experience the game has to offer. This will hopefully get the company's financials back on track.

Sony expects that the PlayStation 5 will remain in short supply throughout 2022 and will therefore be unable to boost sales targets. Sony has sold 7.8 million units through March 31st and expects total sales of 14.8 million units this financial year. Sony has been unable to increase production of the console due to global shortages in components across the semiconductor industry. The PlayStation 5 is currently keeping pace with the early sales of the popular PlayStation 4. Sony isn't the only manufacturer to be impacted by these global shortages with Microsoft and Nintendo reporting similar issues.

Sony CFOI don't think demand is calming down this year and even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of the PlayStation 5 next year, our supply wouldn't be able to catch up with demand

Sony was in discussions with Epic Games to bring six of their first-party titles to PC as Epic Games Store exclusives and was offered a 200 million USD minimum guarantee contract in return. These talks did not succeed with Sony bringing their exclusive titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone to both Steam and the Epic Games Store. Epic Games did succeed in securing some smaller titles as exclusives for their store including Predator: Hunting Grounds and ReadySet Heroes. Epic was also in discussions with Microsoft to bring first-party titles to the store as exclusives and had wanted to engage with Nintendo for a similar offer.