Cable Matters, a leader in developing cutting-edge connectivity solutions, introduces a USB4 20 Gbps Switch, meeting the diverse needs of today's dynamic remote workforce. This versatile, powerful device seamlessly blends performance, adaptability, and cost efficiency, offering users an unparalleled connectivity solution.

"The vision of this product grew from the needs of today's remote workforce," says Jeff Jiang, CEO of Cable Matters. "People are doing more than ever with multiple devices and require connectivity solutions that provide performance and flexibility at an affordable price." Unlike traditional switches, the USB4 20 Gbps Switch is engineered to handle two USB-C, USB4 or Thunderbolt enabled devices concurrently, effortlessly scaling to match the demands of gadget-intensive users. Users can instantly share a USB-C, USB4 or Thunderbolt monitor or docking station between two devices, and easily switch between them using either the unit's button or the included remote control.

Minisforum today announced the G7 Ti Powerhouse, a Versatile mini-PC that offers AI-enhance creativity and raw power. Featuring Intel Core i9-14900HX or i7-14650HX processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics, Minisforum G7 Ti delivers unparalleled performance for AI-based workloads. The powerhouse mini-PC solution is optimized for AI features, powered by up to an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Graphics. Minisforum G7 Ti offers avid gamers an unmatched experience and endless possibilities for creators.

Utilized the 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX and i7-14650HX Processor, the AI-enabled CPU delivers 24 cores and 32 threads with 36 MB L3 high-speed cache, that rates the single-core turbo frequency up to 5.8 GHz and max performance at 90 W. The beast CPU helps AI applications, achieving 20% higher performance in the Cinebench R23 test versus previous-generation processors, making Minisforum G7 Ti capable of handling AAA games, video rendering, 3D design, and AI projects.

ORICO, an industry-leading brand in data storage solutions, is proud to announce the launch of Data Matrix. It's the world's first hybrid storage for revolutionizing instant post-production workflow. With its sleek, Apple-inspired design, it is set to attract content creators, filmmakers and professionals alike, who require high-performance storage solutions to manage 4K/8K content efficiently. Traditional storage solutions often suffer from frequent downtime, slow speeds, and limited space, failing to meet the urgent needs of modern content creators. In cooperation with West Digital (WD), ORICO has designed the Data Matrix to provide a one-stop, cost-efficient production service that balances high speed, large capacity, and strong flexibility. Also, address the concerns about high investment in every 256 GB upgrade for Mac users.

CFexpress Type-B slot delivers an impressive 1500 MB/s import speed during pre-production, reducing the Mac import time by 95%. The 312 MB/s SD V4.0 card reader supports UHS-II 4K video capture. After filming, Digital Imaging Technicians (DIT) can import the camera source files into Data Matrix, transcode videos, save and start 8K 3D video editing instantly. On-site personnel can immediately output the footage from the Data Matrix to a large screen via HDMI (8K @ 30 Hz) for detailed viewing and confirmation, resulting in clearer image quality. The team can also perform initial edits on-site using Thunderbolt 4/3/USB4 significantly reducing the post-production team's workload.To back the project, visit the Kickstarter page.

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.

Since its reveal last week, we got a slightly more technical deep-dive from AMD on its two upcoming processors—the "Strix Point" silicon powering its Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors; and the "Granite Ridge" chiplet MCM powering its Ryzen 9000 desktop processors. We present a closer look into the "Strix Point" SoC in this article. It turns out that "Strix Point" takes a significantly different approach to heterogeneous multicore than "Phoenix 2." AMD gave us a close look at how this works. AMD built the "Strix Point" monolithic silicon on the TSMC N4P foundry node, with a die-area of around 232 mm².

The "Strix Point" silicon sees the company's Infinity Fabric interconnect as its omnipresent ether. This is a point-to-point interconnect, unlike the ringbus on some Intel processors. The main compute machinery on the "Strix Point" SoC are its two CPU compute complexes (CCX), each with a 32b (read)/16b (write) per cycle data-path to the fabric. The concept of CCX makes a comeback with "Strix Point" after nearly two generations of "Zen." The first CCX contains the chip's four full-sized "Zen 5" CPU cores, which share a 16 MB L3 cache among themselves. The second CCX contains the chip's eight "Zen 5c" cores that share a smaller 8 MB L3 cache. Each of the 12 cores has a 1 MB dedicated L2 cache.

MINISFORUM is proud to announce the MS-A1, the world's smallest and most expandable AM5 platform Mini PC. Equipped with the latest AMD AM5 platform, the MS-A1 offers a replaceable CPU, ensuring a longer motherboard lifecycle and sustainable upgrades for future generations of CPUs. Integrated with the AMD Radeon 780M graphics card, the MS-A1 includes 12 GPU cores and a GPU frequency of up to 2900 MHz, effortlessly handling both graphical and gaming demands. Additionally, it incorporates a dedicated NPU unit with up to 16 TOPS of processing power, making it the first desktop processor to include a specialized AI neural processing unit (NPU).

At its highest configuration, the MS-A1 features the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G desktop processor, built on the Zen 4 architecture. This powerhouse boasts 8 cores and 16 threads, a maximum boost clock of 5.10 GHz, and a 65 W TDP, delivering unparalleled performance. The MS-A1 supports dual-channel DDR5 5200 MHz high-speed memory, with a capacity of up to 96 GB, enabling users to achieve fast and efficient multitasking. It also features four M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD slots, offering transfer speeds of up to 7000 MB/s. These extensive expansion slots allow for a maximum system capacity of up to 27 TB, catering to the vast storage needs of creative and multimedia professionals.

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.

Silkland, a tech brand specializing in cables and accessories, has once again raised the bar with its new 4ft USB-IF Certified USB4 Cable. This latest cable delivers unmatched speed and convenience, and works seamlessly with all Thunderbolt 4 / 3 / Type C devices, making it an essential tool for professionals and everyday users alike.

Silkland's latest offering stands out as the longest USB-IF certified USB4 cable, measuring at 4ft. This means users can now enjoy a longer reach without compromising speed and efficiency compared to the standard 3.3ft cables. Fully supports the latest features to future-proof your setup. Backward compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 2 x2.

What appears to be the full details of all of Intel's upcoming 800-series chipsets have leaked and although we've already seen what the Z890 chipset will offer, no details of the other SKUs have leaked to date. Maybe the biggest news is that there won't be an H870 chipset this time around, according to the leaker @jaykihn0 over at X/Twitter. The full range appears to be Z890, B860 and H810 for consumers, W880 for workstations and Q870 for corporate desktops. That said, the Z890 and W880 are identical in terms of slots and ports, but whereas the W880 gains full ECC support and Intel vPro and remote management, it loses the CPU and bus overclocking features of the Z890. The Q870 loses four chipset PCIe 4.0 lanes, one 20 Gbps or two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports, but is otherwise similar to the Z890, minus all the overclocking features, but with Intel vPro and remote management.

The B860 ends up on the chopping block as always and loses not only 10 chipset PCIe lanes compared to the Z890 chipset, but also four lanes from the CPU and four lanes on the DMI interface to the chipset. On top of that bifurcation goes out the window toigether with PCIe RAID and the chipset is only capable of having two 20 Gbps or four 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports, but at least memory overclocking is still on the table. Finally, the H810 chipset is as basic as it gets, with no extra CPU PCIe lanes beyond the 16 lanes for a graphics card, but they are at least PCIe 5.0 this time around. The chipset itself is only equipped with a mere eight PCIe 4.0 lanes and it gets zero 20 Gbps and two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports. Note that all platforms support one or two Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 ports, but it's unclear if this is native support or via an add-on chip. Also note that the USB ports are shared and the maximum count is that for the 5 Gbps ports in the details below, so the Z890 for example, doesn't have 25 USB 3.2 ports in total, but rather only 10. All in all, we'll see a migration to PCIe 5.0 for the x16 slot across the entire 800-series chipset range and from the B860 and up, all chipsets will have a dedicated PCIe 5.0 x4 interface that will most likely be used for an M.2 slot. Also, the PCIe lane count is the maximum, but due to Intel's HSIO layout, some resources will be shared with SATA and Ethernet, which means not all PCIe lanes will be accessible.

Cable Matters, a leader in providing top-tier connectivity solutions, today announced the launch of its groundbreaking Thunderbolt 5 cable manufactured by Lintes Technology Co., Ltd. The cable is available in 3 different lengths: 1 foot, 1.6 feet and 3.3 feet. This latest innovation delivers unparalleled performance, supporting up to 80 Gbps of bi-directional data transfer and up to 120 Gbps of video bandwidth, a substantial leap from the previous Thunderbolt 4 technology.

The new Thunderbolt 5 cable by Cable Matters represents a significant advancement in connectivity technology, offering increased bandwidth and power delivery capabilities. The Bandwidth Boost technology enables the cable to transmit up to 120 Gbps for the best display experience, providing up to 3 times increase over Thunderbolt 4's maximum bandwidth. This enhancement is particularly beneficial for demanding applications such as high-resolution video streaming, extensive data transfer, and high-speed gaming.

At Computex last week, we got a first look at Gigabyte's new TRX50 AI TOP motherboard—where TOP stands for trillions of operations per second—designed for AMD's Threadripper and Threadripper Pro CPUs. Now the company has released the full specifications of the TRX50 AI TOP and the board is packed to the brim with features. The E-ATX board is home to four PCIe x16 slots, all of which can operate in PCIe 5.0, but one can be limited to PCIe 4.0, depending on your choice of CPU. There's also four NVMe M.2 slots, with CPU dependent functionality. Other features include eight DIMM slots, but these are again CPU dependent, two 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces via a pair of Marvell AQtion AQC113C controllers, WiFi 7 via a Qualcomm QCNCM865 module and dual audio chips, one for the rear ports and one for the front panel audio.

As this is a 2024 model, USB4 is of course also part of the package, but only one of the two USB4 supports DP Alt-mode, due to there only being one DP input. The board also has an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) header for a case mounted USB-C port, a further six rear 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports, plus a pair of internal headers for a further four 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports. The board also has four SATA ports, a 16+8+4 power phase design, a 14-layer PCB, a debug display and the now common easy release features for the M.2 drive heatsinks and the graphics card. The TRX50 AI TOP also sports what Gigabyte calls "UC BIOS" which has a "User-Centred intuitive UX with Quick Access function", but there's currently no details of how this differs from previous UEFI releases from Gigabyte. There was no word on pricing.

OWC brought a host of creator storage solutions to Computex 2024. The company's claim to fame over the past decades has been that their gear is compatible with Macs and iOS devices, although, the current generation is pretty standardized for Macs and Windows PCs. We begin our tour with docking stations—the stuff OWC is good at. The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock supports the new Thunderbolt Share standard announced by Intel barely a month ago. It plugs into two PCs (or Macs) that support Thunderbolt Share, and enables a fast 40 Gbps network connection between the two, letting you quickly move files and other resources. The dock also allows you to share its various ports, I/O, and card readers among the two connected machines. These connections include two downstream Thunderbolt 40 Gbps, an HDMI display output, a gigabit Ethernet, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C, a USB 2.0, HD audio with 4-pole headset jack, and an SD card reader. The dock has its own internal power supply that drives all its functions.

Next up, is the Express 1M2, a very slick designed USB4-based portable SSD. Internally, the enclosure has an M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connection, and tested bandwidth as high as 3151 MB/s. A bridge chip connects the M.2 slot to the 40 Gbps USB4 host interface. The actual compartment of the aluminium enclosure with the drive is very slim, much of the body doubles up as a heatsink for the M.2 SSD, there's even some thermal pad and contact points located strategically to make contact with the SSD controller and NAND flash chips. The enclosure supports drives of up to 8 TB in capacity. The range starts from $249 for the 1 TB model.

Akasa brought an interesting set of new gear from its diverse portfolio of PC hardware to Computex 2024. The star attraction is the elegant Hawking series fanless case. The silver-aluminium variant is a work of art. The Hawking series is designed for ASUS NUC motherboards with 28-35 W Core i3 chips. It features a solid copper baseplate to pull heat from the SoC, with a series of heat pipes pushing it to the body, which doubles up as an extruded aluminium heatsink. Akasa also showcased several smaller fanless cases under the Maze and Gem series, for Raspberry Pi 4.

Next up, Akasa showed us a couple of slick aluminium portable SSD enclosures that feature 40 Gbps USB4 connectivity. You simply install an M.2-2280 SSD, a bridge chip has a PCIe Gen 3 x4 connection for this drive on one end, and the 40 Gbps USB4 interface on the other. A single type-C cable is used for both power and host connectivity. Among the various connectivity accessories showcased was a 5 Gbps Ethernet NIC with CAT-6a, based on a Realtek controller.

Team Group showed off its latest portable SSDs at the 2024 Computex. We begin our tour of the Team Group booth with the T-Force M400, a portable SSD that takes advantage of the 40 Gbps USB4 interface to serve up phenomenal transfer speeds of up to 3700 MB/s reads, with up to 3400 MB/s writes. The M400 comes in capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB. The T-Create P35 is a compact high-security portable SSD, which comes with native encryption, and the SSD Security Toolbox interface that protects data even against bruteforcing and BadUSB attacks. This drive packs TCG-Opal 2.0 with 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The drive takes advantage of the 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, and offers transfer speeds of up to 1000 MB/s reads/writes.

The T-Create CinemaPr P31 is a high performance portable SSD meant for lossless digital cinematography. It's designed to fit with popular cinema camera rigs, as well as video rigs made of DSLRs or even smartphones. The drive features a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface, and has up to 2000 MB/s of transfer speeds on tap, with enough speeds for 4K or 8K raw captures. There's also the T-Create CinemaPr R41 CFexpress 4.0 Type B, a related product with similar camera-mounting capabilities.

Zotac took the plunge into the emerging market of Windows-based gaming handhelds that a lot of PC hardware brands are getting into off late. The device has a 7-inch 1080p AMOLED multi-touch display, but you can connect an external display using over DisplayPort. At the heart of the Zotac ZONE is the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" processor, with its Radeon 780M graphics. This chip is wired to 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500, and a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD. The device features an M.2-2280 Gen 4 slot, so you are spoiled for choice with SSD upgrades.

The Zotac ZONE handheld console uses Windows 11 Home, but with its first-party One Launcher UI that organizes your games across DRM platforms, lets you configure input, tweak performance or battery life, and much more. The star attraction with this device's connectivity is its two USB4 type-C ports, one of which has DisplayPort passthrough), and PD 3.0. There's also a microSD UHS-II reader. A 4-pole 3.5 mm headset jack handles analog audio. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Powering it all is a 48.5 Wh battery. The device measures 310 mm x 135 mm x 40 mm, and is expected to weigh under 700 g.

Under the theme "Incredible Speed, Exceeding the Limit," ASMedia showcased its latest USB4 80 Gbps, 120 Gbps, and PCIe Gen 5 physical layer chips at Computex 2024. This demonstration highlighted ASMedia's leading position in the high-speed transmission field and outlined a one-stop solution for high-speed transmission, efficient charging, and multi-device connectivity for future smart working environments.

USB4 redefines data transfer speed
Computex Taipei 2024, ASMedia unveiled its world-leading USB4 80 Gbps and 120 Gbps physical layers, paving the way for the transfer of massive data and high-resolution videos in seconds, significantly improving work efficiency and user convenience. USB4's backward compatibility ensures seamless connection with existing USB devices.

ASUS today announced the innovative concepts and upcoming designs that it will be demonstrating at its Computex 2024 booths, including AI PCs, prototype AMD and Intel motherboards, as well as fresh CPU coolers.

AI PC-ready hardware
With all the groundbreaking AI-powered apps and features available today, and many more on the horizon, PC enthusiasts the world over are searching for hardware that will let them run AI tools on their own AI PC in addition to using cloud-based subscriptions. At Computex 2024, ASUS is showing off the PC hardware that builders can leverage to explore the future of this revolution. An AI PC is an entire platform ready to unlock advanced AI features—in turn, revolutionizing the way that people build, customize, and use such a device.

Besides innovative cases for AI development and acceleration, Silverstone also showed off some interesting storage enclosures in the 5.25-inch format, to be used with some of the above cases that have 5.25-inch drive bays, such as the Alta D1. The FSM08-NS lets you connect up to 8 M.2 NVMe drives, each with PCIe Gen 4 x4 wiring. The backend of this enclosure plugs into eight SDD86423 Slim SAS 4i connectors. The FS304-Lite takes up three 5.25-inch drive bays, and puts out 4x 3.5-inch SAS or SATA drives, with its backplane supporting SATA or SAS. It even has a 92 mm cooling fan. The ECM30 is a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 to 4x M.2-22

The TS434-10G is a USB 3.2 desktop DAS enclosure. It features four 3.5-inch caddies with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes, which are driven by an ASMedia ASM2074 controller, which is connected to an ASM235CM bridge chip. This bridge chip connects to the host over USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). There are no hardware RAID formats supported. The MS12-40 is an M.2 USB4 enclosure. You install an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD inside, which is driven at PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps) speeds. An ASMedia ASM2564 bridge chip connects this to 40 Gbps USB4 over a single type-C cable. The enclosure is made of chunky extruded aluminium, its body doubles up as a heatsink.

AMD today announced its much awaited Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors. Built in the Socket AM5 package, and drop-in compatible with all current AM5 motherboards with a BIOS update, the processors are based on the new "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture. The operational part of the processor, the CPU complex dies (CCDs), are built on the 4 nm process, wired to a 6 nm I/O die. AMD didn't get down into the nuts and bolts of the microarchitecture, but briefly mentioned an impressive 16% IPC increase over "Zen 4." Coupled with the fact that the first wave of processors lack 3D V-cache and can sustain higher boost frequencies and TDP, processors in the series should beat the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in gaming performance, which also means that AMD has beaten the 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" processor series by a significant margin.

The 16% IPC increase over "Zen 4" is backed by branch prediction improvements, wider pipelines and vectors, and deeper window sizes across the core design, for more parallelism. The core also features doubling in instruction bandwidth for front-end instructions, FPU to L1, and L1 to L2 data bandwidth, and a redesigned FPU to double AI performance and AVX512 throughput. The company hasn't put out a block design for "Zen 5," and we'll learn more about it in the run-up to the market availability of these chips some time in July 2024.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, introduced the latest all-round B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 motherboard. Built-in with Dual USB4 ports and comprehensive leading features, B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 enables users to enjoy the most affordable next-gen AM5 platform in advance.

With blisteringly fast and reliable transfer speeds, extensive compatibility, efficient charging, and ultra-HD display connectivity, USB4 has evidently become an essential specification on the coming next-gen AM5 platform. Among the increasing number of USB4-ready devices on the market, the B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 exclusively features dual native USB4 ports, providing up to 40 Gbps on each port with support for all Ryzen processors. Uniquely, this total 40 Gbps bandwidth can be fully used for data transferring, unlike Thunderbolt 4, which shares bandwidth between data and video. Aside from the full 40 Gbps USB4, B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 also offers superb connectivity with Wi-Fi 7 using GIGABYTE's Ultra-High Gain antenna and 2.5 GbE LAN.

ADATA Technology, the world's leading brand for memory modules and flash memory, will team up with its gaming brand XPG and industrial-grade embedded storage brand ADATA Industrial for Computex Taipei 2024 from June 4 to June 7. ADATA's theme for 2024 is "Innovate Today, Embrace Tomorrow." At the show, ADATA will present products in three major categories tied to their vision and commitment to leading innovation and sustainable initiatives. These categories include "AI Computing," "Sustainability and Innovation," and "Immersive Reality."

ADATA and XPG brand ambassador Mera will make a surprise appearance in the "AI Computing" section. ADATA will showcase the world's first AI gaming laptop equipped with an SSD of up to 24 TB and 96 GB of DRAM, overclocked DDR5 8000 R-DIMM for handling massive computing workloads and data processing, and a complete line of Express Card storage solutions that promote AI mobile devices. ADATA will also display various high performance products that continue to lead sustainability trends in the "Sustainability and Innovation" section including the industry's only comprehensive innovative cooling solutions, and a full range of green storage products made of recycled materials. Other highlights will include the 2024 iF Design Award winning INVADER X family of gaming chassis, and gaming components that combine optimized heat dissipation, environmental awareness, and the application of future technologies. The "Immersive Reality" section features a new gaming handheld PC, the XPG NIA, a full range of gaming products and peripherals, and the industry's most powerful external SSD solutions and mobile peripherals. In order to make it easier for consumers around the world to participate in the exhibition, ADATA will simultaneously launch its online COMPUTEX event from June 4, allowing consumers to experience ADATA's full range of industry-leading products.

BoostR is an Indiegogo crowdfunded project that seeks to integrate a multi-functional I/O dock with an external GPU. It's a rather brilliant idea—the dock draws connectivity from a USB4 (40 Gbps) connection, which it uses to connect an AMD Radeon RX 7600M GPU, an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD slot, a 1 GbE networking interface, an SD 4.0 card reader, and a bunch of USB 3.2 downstream ports.

The device comes with a power brick, and by default draws 100 W for all its functions, including the eGPU. You can boost the power limit to 120 W, which should improve the GPU's performance. The GPU puts out a couple of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 connectors. BoostR was briefly available on Indiegogo at an early-bird price of $499, at which it would undercut the Ayaneo OneXGPU, a similar contraption of an eGPU+M.2+port dock that's priced at $699. One area where the BoostR has an edge over the OneXGPU is its 120 W mode that give the GPU improved boost frequency residency. It remains to be seen what the regular price of BoostR will be, but the company is offering a 5% discount on the final price if you sign up for their newsletter.

USB4 hasn't exactly taken off as yet, largely due to a shortage of devices in the market and with a limited number of device controllers, the competition in the market is also slow. With Thunderbolt compatibility, there are plenty of USB4 compatible hosts out there though, even though you only get 32 Gbps rather than 40 Gbps of data throughput when a USB4 device is connected to Thunderbolt 3 or 4, although Thunderbolt 5 will allow for the full 40 Gbps. A company called ADT-Link has launched a product it calls the UT3G which is pretty much a retail ready bridge solution that allows techies and tinkerers to try out whatever PCIe devices they have over USB4. The adapter has a full-length PCIe x16 slot, but it's limited to a four lane PCIe interface which is compatible with PCIe 4.0, albeit not at the full 64 Gbps that such an interface can deliver.

In addition to the USB4 Type-C port on the PCB there's a standard 24-pin ATX power supply connector for power, which means that this isn't really a portable solution. However, the company has tested the UT3G with various graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA to make sure you can use it as an external graphics card dock. The UT3G has also been tested to be compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS, although macOS is limited to AMD GPUs. The board is built around the ASMedia ASM2464PD USB4 to PCIe 4.0 bridge and this shouldn't come as a surprise, as so far this is the only such device controller. ADT-Link doesn't appear to be selling the UT3G to consumers, but it can be picked up online from DFRobot starting at US$129 for a single unit.

ASUS today announced a new generation of AI-powered computing at its online-only Next Level. AI Incredible. launch event, dedicated to the launch of the ASUS Vivobook S 15 (S5507). Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite, the device is the company's first Copilot+ PC, with Windows AI features and a collection of exclusive ASUS AI apps that aim to improve the user's work and play.

"As ASUS embarks on this journey, marked by the launch of our first AI PC, we stand at the beginning of a new era of personal computing." ASUS Co-CEO S.Y. Hsu said, speaking at the event, "The launch of our first Copilot+ PC powered by Snapdragon X Elite is an important milestone for us, and we believe that these devices are the future of consumer PCs and will drastically change the way we will work, study, create, and play."

Later today we're expecting to see several Arm based notebooks running Windows 11 being announced, at least based on launch event announcements by some of the manufacturers. Two upcoming Samsung models have leaked ahead of the product launches and it appears that Samsung will at least offer a pair of different models with either a 14-inch or a 16-inch display as the Galaxy Book4 Edge 14 and Galaxy Book4 Edge 16. The latter is also said to come in a Pro model. According to Winfuture, all three models will feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors, although the specific SKUs are currently unknown.

Both the 14-inch and 16-inch models are said to come with AMOLED displays with a 3K resolution, which is at least 2880 by something, but could be higher. The displays are said to have a brightness of up to 400 nits, but little else is known about the displays. Other known features include USB4 support—as it's part of the Qualcomm specs—and both sizes appear to feature two Type-C ports, plus a regular USB Type-A port of unknown speed and a micro SD card slot on the 16-inch models. There's also an HDMI port and a headset jack on both sizes of the Galaxy Book4 Edge. Winfuture claims the base model will start at around €1,800.