New technology from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is helping the EU establish its own competitive computer manufacturing industry. Researchers have developed components critical for optimising on-chip memory, a key factor in enhancing the performance of next-generation computers.

The research leader, Professor Per Stenström, along with colleagues, has discovered new ways to make cache memory work smarter. A cache is a local memory that temporarily stores frequently accessed data, improving a computer's speed and performance. "Our solution enables computers to retrieve data significantly faster than before, as the cache can manage far more processing elements (PEs) than most existing systems. This makes it possible to meet the demands of tomorrow's powerful computers," says Per Stenström, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the open-source release of its new All-in-Storage ANNS with Product Quantization (AiSAQ) technology. A novel "approximate nearest neighbor" search (ANNS) algorithm optimized for SSDs, KIOXIA AiSAQ software delivers scalable performance for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) without placing index data in DRAM - and instead searching directly on SSDs.

Generative AI systems demand significant compute, memory and storage resources. While they have the potential to drive transformative breakthroughs across various industries, their deployment often comes with high costs. RAG is a critical phase of AI that refines large language models (LLMs) with data specific to the company or application.

Element Six (E6), a pioneer in the development of synthetic diamond advanced material solutions, will launch an innovative Cu-diamond product at Photonics West 2025. Cu-Diamond is a copper plated diamond composite material that has a high thermal and electrical conductivity. Designed to address the increasingly critical thermal management challenges in advanced semiconductor devices, this cost-effective solution enables greater performance and reliability for applications such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and GaN RF devices.

As semiconductor devices have grown larger and more powerful, managing heat dissipation has become a significant challenge for the industry. More than 50 percent of all electronic device failures are heat-related, and data centers, which today consume 3.7 percent of total U.S. power demand, are predicted to reach 10 percent by 2029. As a result, thermal management innovation is critical to enabling next-generation performance and energy efficiency.

Montage Technology today announced the customer sampling of its PCIe 6.x/CXL 3.x Retimer -- M88RT61632, which is designed to enhance connectivity performance for demanding high-bandwidth applications such as AI and cloud computing. This milestone extends the company's PCIe product portfolio, building upon its successful PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0/CXL 2.0 Retimer solutions.

The PCIe 6.x/CXL 3.x Retimer delivers excellent performance with data rates up to 64 GT/s, twice that of PCIe 5.0. Powered by Montage Technology's proprietary PAM4 SerDes IP, the chip achieves superior signal integrity with link budget up to 43dB while maintaining low latency. Its innovative DSP architecture effectively addresses PCIe 6.x system design challenges including crosstalk and signal reflection. In addition, the chip features advanced link training and enhanced telemetry, enabling comprehensive link monitoring and fault diagnostics for high-reliability AI cluster deployments.

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (the "Company" or "Seagate"), a leading innovator of mass-capacity data storage, today reported financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended December 27, 2024. "Seagate ended calendar 2024 on a strong note as we grew revenue, gross margin and non-GAAP EPS successively in each quarter of the year.

Our results demonstrate structural improvements in the business and our focus on value capture in an improving demand environment, highlighted by decade-high gross margin performance exiting the December quarter," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer. "We are advancing our technology roadmap to meet our customers' growing need for scalable, cost efficient and sustainable storage solutions in the age of AI. We began ramping HAMR-based Mozaic products to our lead cloud customer in the December quarter and are already sampling in capacities of up to 36 terabytes. Looking ahead, we believe Seagate is in a great position to deliver profitable growth in fiscal 2025," Mosley concluded.

Numem, an innovator focused on accelerating memory for AI workloads, will be at the upcoming Chiplet Summit to showcase its high-performance solutions. By accelerating the delivery of data via new memory subsystem designs, Numem solutions are re-architecting the hierarchy of AI memory tiers to eliminate the bottlenecks that negatively impact power and performance.

The rapid growth of AI workloads and AI Processor/GPUs are exacerbating the memory bottleneck caused by the slowing performance improvements and scalability of SRAM and DRAM - presenting a major obstacle to maximizing system performance. To overcome this, there is a pressing need for intelligent memory solutions that offer higher power efficiency and greater bandwidth, coupled with a reevaluation of traditional memory architectures.

Global technology powerhouse Lenovo Group Limited (together with its subsidiary, "Lenovo" or the "Group") has announced that its subsidiary has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Infinidat Ltd. ("Infinidat"), a global provider of high-end enterprise storage solutions. The acquisition is part of Lenovo's growth strategy to bring differentiated technology solutions to market. This move will further strengthen Lenovo's enterprise storage offerings globally and underscores a commitment to delivering innovative storage solutions that meet the evolving needs of modern data centers.

With the strong storage solutions and research & development capabilities of Infinidat, the transaction will create strategic synergies with the Group's infrastructure solutions business and enterprise storage capabilities.

Seagate Technology Holdings plc, an innovator of mass capacity data storage, today announced shipments of Exos M hard drive samples to select customers in industry-leading capacities up to 36 terabytes (TB). Based on Mozaic 3+, the company's breakthrough heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology platform, Exos M delivers unprecedented storage scale for large-scale data center deployments.

Key Takeaways

• Adopted by Cloud Service Providers: Seagate is currently ramping Exos M to volume shipments on capacity points up to 32 TB with a leading cloud service provider. Separately, Seagate is also sampling drives on the Exos M platform of up to 36 TB.
• Mozaic 3+ and HAMR Innovation: Based on Seagate's Mozaic 3+ technology platform, the industry's first implementation of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), Exos M offers data center operators significant scale, total cost of ownership (TCO), and sustainability advantages, including 300% more storage capacity within the same data center footprint, a 25% cost reduction per terabyte and 60% reduction in power consumption per terabyte.
• Unrivalled Areal Density: Exos M, powered by HAMR-based Mozaic 3+ platform, now delivers capacity points up to 36 TB through a highly efficient 10-platter product design. Seagate is the only data storage company that can achieve areal densities of 3.6 TB per hard drive platter today, with a pathway to increasing per-platter capacity to 10 TB.

NVIDIA's deep learning super sampling (DLSS) has undergone many iterations to the current version 4 with the transformer model, delivering new technologies such as DLSS Multi Frame Generation, predicting multiple frames in advance to generate the upcoming frame, and increasing the frame output per second. However, not every NVIDIA GPU generation supports these more modern DLSS technologies. In an interview with Digital Foundry, Bryan Catanzaro, VP of Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA, commented on trickling down some DLSS technologies to older GPU generations. For example, DLSS Ray Reconstruction, Super Resolution, and Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA) work on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20/30/40/50 series GPUs. However, the RTX 40 series carries an exclusive DLSS Frame Generation, and the newest RTX 50 series carries the DLSS Multi Frame Generation as an exclusive feature.

However, there is hope for older hardware. "I think this is primarily a question of optimization and also engineering and then the ultimate user experience. We're launching this Frame Generation, the best Multi Frame Generation technology, with the 50 Series, and we'll see what we're able to squeeze out of older hardware in the future." So, frame generation will most likely arrive on the older RTX 30 series, with even a slight possibility of the RTX 20 series getting the DLSS frame generation. Due to compute budget constraints, the multi-frame generation will most likely stay an RTX 50 series exclusive as it has more raw computing power to handle this technology.

Infortrend Technology, Inc., the industry-leading enterprise storage provider, introduces the latest additions to its high-density 4U 90-bay HDD solutions: unified storage EonStor GS 5090 and expansion enclosure JB 4090. The large capacity and high throughput performance of the solutions make them ideal for applications like High-Performance Computing and Media & Entertainment.

EonStor GS 5090 is a high-availability unified storage solution with a dual redundant controller design, ensuring uninterrupted operation. With its new hardware powered by the Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, the GS 5090 delivers ultra-high performance, achieving 45 GB/s read and 20 GB/s write—around three times the performance of the previous top-performing model, the GS 4090. The GS 5090 introduces ultra-fast 200GbE connectivity, setting a new benchmark for data transfer speed while simplifying deployment and management to meet the demands of today's high-performance enterprise workloads. It also supports SAS 24G expansion, doubling throughput compared to SAS 12G. Additionally, the GS 5090 features four dedicated U.2 NVMe SSD slots for cache, providing fast data access while fully leveraging the ample capacity of its 90-bay storage.

Lam Research Corporation today announced that its innovative dry photoresist (dry resist) technology has been qualified for direct-print 28 nm pitch back end of line (BEOL) logic at 2 nm and below by imec, a leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. An advanced patterning technique introduced by Lam, dry resist enhances the resolution, productivity and yield of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a pivotal technology used in the production of next-generation semiconductor devices.

"Lam's dry photoresist technology provides unparalleled low-defectivity, high-resolution patterning," said Vahid Vahedi, chief technology and sustainability officer at Lam Research. "We are excited to offer this technology to imec and its partners as a critical process in the design and manufacturing of leading-edge semiconductor devices."

Ventiva, the leader in thermal solutions, today announced that its Ventiva ICE9 thermal management suite is being featured in a fan-less proof-of-concept laptop design, powered by Intel Lunar Lake processors at CES. By collaborating with Dell Technologies and Intel on the PC design, this concept introduces a new level of silent productivity for sub-12 mm laptops.

"Ventiva ICE technology offers a revolutionary approach to help achieve thin, light, and silent laptop designs that offer great performance," said Josh Newman, Vice President, Client Computing Group, and General Manager, Product Marketing & Management, Intel. "Intel is excited about the result of the close co-engineering collaboration with Ventiva and Dell Technologies to help ready their technology for future Intel Core Ultra devices."

CES 2025, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, kicked off in Las Vegas of America on January 7th, 2025, with more than 130,000 attendees and over 4,800 companies. As a high-performance esports equipment brand incubated by Haier Group, THUNDEROBOT showcased its comprehensive innovation capabilities in high-performance esports equipment under the theme "Powerful Esports Momentum".

At this event, THUNDEROBOT unveiled a range of flagship products encompassing esports laptops, smart glasses, monitors, desktops, and peripherals. Among these, the world's first THUNDEROBOT ZERO series of high-performance gaming laptops took the spotlight. This series is powered by the latest Intel's Core Ultra 200HX (codenamed Arrow Lake-HX) processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU. Notably, the flagship ZERO 18 model incorporates a triple-fan "Xiu Technology 2.0" cooling system with seven copper heat pipes and phase-change thermal grease to ensure optimal thermal management even under intense use. Additionally, the introduction of an 18-inch Hummingbird eye-care display with high refresh rates has significantly enhanced the immersive user experience. Each machine will undergo default color calibration to provide accurate color settings.

Under-display cameras—fully hidden beneath laptop screens—have been an unrealized dream until now. This revolutionary technology enables Lenovo to deliver a sleek, bezel-free design while maintaining exceptional video quality, thanks to Visionary.ai's breakthrough in imaging technology.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is the world's first CUD (camera-under-display) laptop, enhanced with Visionary.ai's image processing technology. This innovation enables a razor-thin bezel housing a 14" 4K 120 Hz PureSight Pro OLED display.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) broke ground today on a new High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) advanced packaging facility adjacent to the company's current facilities in Singapore. Micron marked the occasion with a ceremony attended by Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore, Png Cheong Boon, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board, Pee Beng Kong, Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board, and Tan Boon Khai, CEO of JTC Corporation.

The new HBM advanced packaging facility will be the first facility of its kind in Singapore. Operations for the new facility are scheduled to begin in 2026, with meaningful expansion of Micron's total advanced packaging capacity beginning in calendar 2027 to meet the demands of AI growth. The launch of this facility will further strengthen Singapore's local semiconductor ecosystem and innovation.

Graid Technology, the global leader in innovative storage performance solutions, is proud to announce the launch of SupremeRAID AE (AI Edition), the most resilient RAID data protection solution for enterprises leveraging GPU servers and AI workloads. Featuring GPUDirect Storage support and an intelligent data offload engine, SupremeRAID AE redefines how AI applications manage data, delivering unmatched performance, flexibility, and efficiency.

SupremeRAID AE's cutting-edge technology empowers organizations to accelerate AI workflows by reducing data access latency and increasing I/O efficiency, while protecting mission-critical datasets with enterprise-grade reliability. Its seamless scalability enables enterprises to meet future AI demands without overhauling existing infrastructure. Designed for a wide range of users, SupremeRAID AE benefits AI/ML teams by delivering faster training and inference for data-intensive models, enterprises with GPU servers by optimizing GPU performance for critical workloads, and data scientists and researchers by providing seamless access to vast datasets without bottlenecks. IT teams also gain resilient, scalable RAID storage that integrates effortlessly into existing systems without requiring additional hardware.

Creative Technology and TGIF have teamed up to offer gamers the perfect balance of immersive audio and ergonomic comfort. By merging Creative's industry-leading audio technology with TGIF's expertise in designing high-performance ergonomic gaming chairs, this partnership kicks off with the launch of the T0 Aurena gaming chair speaker system - engineered to deliver superior audio and comfort for users during extended gaming and entertainment sessions.

Debuting at CES 2025, the innovative speaker system features Creative's SoundBlaster CMSS3D+ technology, delivering rich, multi-dimensional audio that brings games and movies to life. This pioneering technology can create a surround sound experience within a compact desktop setup, offering a wider, more immersive soundstage for a lifelike audio experience. Gamers can expect to feel every moment in vivid detail—from the precision of footsteps in first-person shooter games to the cinematic depth of movie soundtracks—all while relaxing in the comfort of TGIF's expertly designed ergonomic gaming chairs.

GIGABYTE Technology, internationally renowned for its R&D capabilities and a leading innovator in server and data center solutions, continues to lead technological innovation during this critical period of AI and computing advancement. With its comprehensive AI product portfolio, GIGABYTE will showcase its complete range of AI computing solutions at CES 2025, from data center infrastructure to IoT applications and personal computing, demonstrating how its extensive product line enables digital transformation across all sectors in this AI-driven era.

Powering AI from the Cloud
With AI Large Language Models (LLMs) now routinely featuring parameters in the hundreds of billions to trillions, robust training environments (data centers) have become a critical requirement in the AI race. GIGABYTE offers three distinctive solutions for AI infrastructure.
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According to a recent investigative report, UK-based Imagination Technologies faces allegations of transferring sensitive GPU intellectual property to Chinese companies with potential military connections. The UK-China Transparency organization claims that following its 2020 acquisition by China-controlled investment firm Canyon Bridge, Imagination provided complete access to its GPU IP to Chinese entities with military connections. The report suggests this included sharing detailed architectural documentation typically reserved for premier clients like Apple. At the center of the controversy are Chinese firms Moore Threads and Biren Technology, which have emerged as significant players in China's AI and GPU sectors. The report indicates Moore Threads maintains connections with military GPU suppliers, while Biren Technology has received partial Russian investment.

The organization argues that Canyon Bridge, which has ties to the state-owned China Reform enterprise, helped these technological transfers to benefit China's military-industrial complex. Imagination Technologies has defended its actions, maintaining that all licensing agreements comply with industry standards. The allegations have sparked renewed debate about foreign ownership of strategic technology assets and the effectiveness of current export controls. When Canyon Bridge acquired Imagination in 2020, security experts raised concerns about potential military applications of the firm's technology. UKCT plans to release additional findings, including information from legal disputes involving Imagination's previous management. Rising concerns over technology transfers have prompted governments to reassess export controls and corporate oversight in the semiconductor industry, as nations struggle to balance international commerce with national security priorities. We are yet to see official government response to this situation.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced results for its first quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended November 28, 2024.

Fiscal Q1 2025 highlights

• Revenue of $8.71 billion versus $7.75 billion for the prior quarter and $4.73 billion for the same period last year
• GAAP net income of $1.87 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share
• Non-GAAP net income of $2.04 billion, or $1.79 per diluted share
• Operating cash flow of $3.24 billion versus $3.41 billion for the prior quarter and $1.40 billion for the same period last year

"Micron delivered a record quarter, and our data center revenue surpassed 50% of our total revenue for the first time," said Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology. "While consumer-oriented markets are weaker in the near term, we anticipate a return to growth in the second half of our fiscal year. We continue to gain share in the highest margin and strategically important parts of the market and are exceptionally well positioned to leverage AI-driven growth to create substantial value for all stakeholders."

Nanya Technology's Board of Directors today has approved a strategic partnership with PieceMakers Technology, Inc. ("PieceMakers") to jointly develop customized ultra-high-bandwidth memory solutions. As part of the collaboration, Nanya Technology will subscribe to a cash capital increase of up to NT$ 660 million, purchasing up to 22 million common shares at NT$ 30 per share in PieceMakers. Upon completion of the capital increase, Nanya Technology is expected to acquire up to approximately 38% stakes of PieceMakers.

To meet the growing demand for high-performance memory driven by AI and edge computing, this collaboration will combine Nanya Technology's 10 nm-class DRAM innovation with PieceMakers' expertise in customized DRAM design to develop high-value, high-performance, and low-power customized ultra-high-bandwidth memory solutions, unlocking new opportunities in AI and high-performance computing markets.

NVIDIA's RTX 5000 series GPU hardware has been leaked repeatedly in the weeks and months leading up to CES 2025, with previous leaks tipping significant updates for the RTX 5070 Ti in the VRAM department. Now, Inno3D is apparently hinting that the RTX 5000 series will also introduce updated machine learning and AI tools to NVIDIA's GPU line-up. An official CES 2025 teaser published by Inno3D, titled "Inno3D At CES 2025, See You In Las Vegas!" makes mention of potential updates to NVIDIA's AI acceleration suite for both gaming and productivity.

The Inno3D teaser specifically points out "Advanced DLSS Technology," "Enhanced Ray Tracing" with new RT cores, "better integration of AI in gaming and content creation," "AI-Enhanced Power Efficiency," AI-powered upscaling tech for content creators, and optimizations for generative AI tasks. All of this sounds like it builds off of previous NVIDIA technology, like RTX Video Super Resolution, although the mention of content creation suggests that it will be more capable than previous efforts, which were seemingly mostly consumer-focussed. Of course, improved RT cores in the new RTX 5000 GPUs is also expected, although it will seemingly be the first time NVIDIA will use AI to enhance power draw, suggesting that the CES announcement will come with new features for the NVIDIA App. The real standout feature, though, are called "Neural Rendering" and "Advanced DLSS," both of which are new nomenclatures. Of course, Advanced DLSS may simply be Inno3D marketing copy, but Neural Rendering suggests that NVIDIA will "Revolutionize how graphics are processed and displayed," which is about as vague as one could be.

Today at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) 2024, Intel Foundry unveiled new breakthroughs to help drive the semiconductor industry forward into the next decade and beyond. Intel Foundry showcased new material advancements that help improve interconnections within a chip, resulting in up to 25% capacitance by using subtractive ruthenium. Intel Foundry also was first to report a 100x throughput improvement using a heterogeneous integration solution for advanced packaging to enable ultra-fast chip-to-chip assembly. And to further drive gate-all-around (GAA) scaling, Intel Foundry demonstrated work with silicon RibbonFET CMOS and with gate oxide module for scaled 2D FETs for improved device performance.

"Intel Foundry continues to help define and shape the roadmap for the semiconductor industry. Our latest breakthroughs underscore the company's commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology developed in the U.S., positioning us well to help balance the global supply chain and restore domestic manufacturing and technology leadership with the support of the U.S. CHIPS Act," says Sanjay Natarajan, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry Technology Research.

Broadcom Inc. today announced the availability of its 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package (XDSiP) platform technology, enabling consumer AI customers to develop next-generation custom accelerators (XPUs). The 3.5D XDSiP integrates more than 6000 mm² of silicon and up to 12 high bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks in one packaged device to enable high-efficiency, low-power computing for AI at scale. Broadcom has achieved a significant milestone by developing and launching the industry's first Face-to-Face (F2F) 3.5D XPU.

The immense computational power required for training generative AI models relies on massive clusters of 100,000 growing to 1 million XPUs. These XPUs demand increasingly sophisticated integration of compute, memory, and I/O capabilities to achieve the necessary performance while minimizing power consumption and cost. Traditional methods like Moore's Law and process scaling are struggling to keep up with these demands. Therefore, advanced system-in-package (SiP) integration is becoming crucial for next-generation XPUs. Over the past decade, 2.5D integration, which involves integrating multiple chiplets up to 2500 mm² of silicon and HBM modules up to 8 HBMs on an interposer, has proven valuable for XPU development. However, as new and increasingly complex LLMs are introduced, their training necessitates 3D silicon stacking for better size, power, and cost. Consequently, 3.5D integration, which combines 3D silicon stacking with 2.5D packaging, is poised to become the technology of choice for next-generation XPUs in the coming decade.

Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, today introduced Marvell Ara, the industry's first 3 nm 1.6 Tbps PAM4 interconnects platform featuring 200 Gbps electrical and optical interfaces. Building on the success of the Nova 2 DSP, the industry's first 5 nm 1.6 Tbps PAM4 DSP with 200 Gbps electrical and optical interfaces, Ara leverages the comprehensive Marvell 3 nm platform with industry-leading 200 Gbps SerDes and integrated optical modulator drivers, to reduce 1.6 Tbps optical module power by over 20%. The energy efficiency improvement reduces operational costs and enables new AI server and networking architectures to address the need for higher bandwidth and performance for AI workloads, within the significant power constraints of the data center.

Ara, the industry's first 3 nm PAM4 optical DSP, builds on six generations of Marvell leadership in PAM4 optical DSP technology. It integrates eight 200 Gbps electrical lanes to the host and eight 200 Gbps optical lanes, enabling 1.6 Tbps in a compact, standardized module form factor. Leveraging 3 nm technology and laser driver integration, Ara reduces module design complexity, power consumption and cost, setting a new benchmark for next-generation AI and cloud infrastructure.