IBM and Intel announced a global collaboration to deploy Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators as a service on IBM Cloud. This offering, which is expected to be available in early 2025, aims to help more cost-effectively scale enterprise AI and drive innovation underpinned with security and resiliency. This collaboration will also enable support for Gaudi 3 within IBM's watsonx AI and data platform. IBM Cloud is the first cloud service provider (CSP) to adopt Gaudi 3, and the offering will be available for both hybrid and on-premise environments.

"Unlocking the full potential of AI requires an open and collaborative ecosystem that provides customers with choice and accessible solutions. By integrating Gaudi 3 AI accelerators and Xeon CPUs with IBM Cloud, we are creating new AI capabilities and meeting the demand for affordable, secure and innovative AI computing solutions," said Justin Hotard, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center and AI Group.

AMD EPYC class of enterprise processors has gotten infected by as many as 22 different security vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities range anywhere from medium to high severity, affecting all three generations of AMD EPYC processors. This includes AMD Naples, Rome, and Milan generations, where almost all three are concerned with the whole 22 exploits. There are a few exceptions, and you can find that on AMD's website. However, not all seems to be bad. AMD says that "During security reviews in collaboration with Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, potential vulnerabilities in the AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP), AMD System Management Unit (SMU), AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and other platform components were discovered and have been mitigated in AMD EPYC AGESA PI packages."

AMD has already shipped new mitigations in the form of AGESA updates, and users should not fear if they keep their firmware up to date. If you or your organization is running on AMD EPYC processors, you should update the firmware to avoid any exploits from happening. The latest updates in question are NaplesPI-SP3_1.0.0.G, RomePI-SP3_1.0.0.C, and MilanPI-SP3_1.0.0.4 AGESA versions, which fix all of 22 security holes.

NVIDIA's tool to enhance both live streaming and video conferencing just got even better. The Broadcast app has transformed the homes, apartments and dorm rooms of millions of content creators, remote students and workers into home studios through the power of AI—all without the need to purchase specialized equipment. The latest upgrade, NVIDIA Broadcast version 1.3, is available to download today and further improves noise removal, adds more camera compatibility, and reduces the impact on overall system performance.

NVIDIA Broadcast's noise removal AI effect has been widely praised for its ability to remove background noise while keeping speech clear and crisp. The exception? When someone speaks with a lot of emotion—typically speaking loudly or at a higher pitch—and their speech is sometimes inadvertently removed. This rarely happens, but is typically at the peak moments of excitement during a livestream. The new update addresses this with dedicated training sound profiles to retain that speech while removing the unwanted background noise.

AMD and Google Cloud today announced T2D, the first instance in the new family of Tau Virtual Machines (VMs) powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors. According to Google Cloud, the T2D instance offers 56% higher absolute performance and more than 40% higher price performance for scale-out workloads. The Tau VM family provides customers with a leading combination of performance, price, and easy integration. The T2D instances, using the leadership performance of 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, excels at workloads including web servers, containerized micro-services, data logging-processing, large scale Java applications and more.

"At Google Cloud, our customers' compute needs are evolving," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. "By collaborating with AMD, Google Cloud customers can now leverage amazing performance for scale-out applications, with great price-performance, all without compromising x86 compatibility." "We designed 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors to meet the growing demand from cloud and enterprise customers for high-performance, cost-effective solutions with optimal TCO," said AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "We work closely with Google Cloud and are proud they selected AMD to exclusively power the new Tau VM T2D instance which provides customers with powerful new options to run their most demanding scale-out workloads."

QNAP Systems, Inc. today launched the TS-977XU AMD Ryzen NAS series, QNAP's first 1U hybrid-structure NAS. The series provides four 3.5-inch SATA drive bays for hard drives and five 2.5-inch SATA drive bays for SSDs, allowing users to enable caching and Qtier auto-tiering storage and to benefit from QNAP's revolutionary software-defined SSD extra over-provisioning technology. The TS-977XU also provides well-rounded virtualization applications, providing businesses and organizations with a highly-efficient and cost-effective storage solution.

"By combining AMD Ryzen processors with an advanced hybrid storage structure and 10GbE SFP+ connectivity, the TS-977XU packs tremendous performance into a compact 1U frame. The TS-977XU is further enhanced by PCIe expandability, allowing users to expand core NAS functionality as needed to accommodate changing requirements and business growth," said David Tsao, product manager of QNAP.

Worldwide shipments of virtual reality (VR) headsets were down 33.7% year over year in the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker. IDC expects this to be a temporary setback as the VR market finds its legs. The arrival of new products, such as the Oculus Go and HTC Vive Pro, and new brands, combined with the need for greater headset fidelity all point to a positive outlook for the quarters ahead.

Screenless viewers brought a lot of attention to VR in the early days as the entire market was artificially propped up by brands like Samsung, Alcatel, and Google that bundled the headsets with smartphones. However, since then, the screenless viewer category has declined substantially, shrinking from 1 million headsets in 2Q17 to 409,000 in 2Q18. This category was the largest contributor to the decline in shipments for the overall VR headset market.

AVerMedia Technologies, Inc., a leader in digital video and audio, today introduced its brand-new line of SonicWave gaming audio solutions. The two headsets, the stereo SonicWave GH335 and the virtual 7.1 surround sound SonicWave GH337, have both been designed to give gamers a satisfying, immersive audio experience on PC, all current consoles and even mobile platforms. AVerMedia listened to gaming community feedback to ensure the SonicWave line measures up to the most demanding gaming audio needs.

Both headsets feature oversized 50mm neodymium drivers delivering powerful sound at a fraction of the weight of regular magnets. The stereo SonicWave GH335 features analog audio and microphone connections and its oversized drivers and closed back design help keep gamers focused on their gaming experience.

AMD today unveiled its big annual driver releases for its consumer-graphics Radeon line, and the professional-graphics Radeon Pro and FirePro lines. The BAR (big annual release) for the latter is titled AMD Radeon Pro Adrenalin Edition 17.12.1 WHQL, and introduces a slew of new features that add value to the company's FirePro and Radeon Pro graphics cards. Since its 2016 BAR (Radeon Pro Crimson ReLive), the company's regular driver updates for enterprises achieved a predictable cadence of the 2nd Wednesday of the 2nd month of each quarter, capped off with a big annual release in December, besides prioritized 24x7 support. This, AMD claims, has been well received by its customers.

With the Radeon Pro Adrenalin Edition, AMD is expanding its software in four key directions - Pro Render, Pro Settings, New Driver Options, and Virtualization. It also chronicles driver releases over 2017 have gradually increased performance levels by up to 16 percent compared to last year's big annual release. AMD expanded the feature-set of ProRender, its in-house and highly modular 3D rendering engine for CAD designers and 3D artists, including its support for Maxon Cinema 4D; interactive viewport de-noising for Blender; a new Game Engine Importer extension that can import geometry and materials in real-time from SolidWorks to Unreal Engine; accelerating VR ports of popular games and professional 3D scenes; and a set of additional features such as PBR Shader for Blender. The drivers also add macOS support for Maya and Blender, which will be implemented "soon," along with support for 2018 releases of 3DSMax and Maya.

MSI, world leader in high-end gaming hardware, is excited to launch a new addition to the Aegis Series, MSI Aegis Ti. This is the ultimate gaming power supreme for gamers who want max performance and power. The Aegis Ti, uses a powerful unlocked Intel Core K-series processor to give gamers ultimate overclocking abilities. On top of that, Aegis Ti houses MSI's recently released full size MSI GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.

But to give more power, the Aegis Ti is 2 way SLI Ready meaning you can double the GPU power for more details and supporting gamers with the best possible graphical performance. Besides all extreme hardware, Aegis Ti harnesses the Aegis series breathtaking case design that is unmatched and easy to upgrade. Coupled with its own Silent Storm Cooling 3 solution, not only the performance but also its unique interior layout is unmatched and provides gamers with a top-notch performance.

AMD today released its completely reimagined graphics software suite, Radeon Software Crimson Edition, giving users an exceptional new user experience, 12 new or enhanced features, up to 20 percent more graphics performance, adjustability that can nearly double generational energy efficiency2, and rock-solid stability across the full spectrum of AMD graphics products. The release is the first from the Radeon Technologies Group, which recently announced a renewed focus on software placing it on par with hardware initiatives.

"As the primary way that people interact with our products, our software deserves to be viewed as a top priority, and going forward that's exactly what we're doing, delivering easy-to-use software that is packed with real user benefits, starting with Radeon Software Crimson Edition," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group. "Radeon Technologies Group is laser-focused on the vertical integration of all things graphics, propelling the industry forward by driving performance per watt, creating innovative technologies and ensuring that the software supporting our GPUs is world class."DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

MSI, world leading in motherboard technology, announces the most powerful X99 gaming solution, the X99A GODLIKE GAMING motherboard. Featuring Killer DoubleShot-X3 Pro, Turbo M.2 connectivity, 2X Faster USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C and a whole new gaming oriented LED feature, MYSTIC LIGHT, the X99A GODLIKE GAMING is the most powerful motherboard to serve you in battle.

The X99A GODLIKE GAMING is world's first RGB LED motherboard, supporting more than 2000 colors and many style presets such as breathing, flashing and waving. Make your build look on fire or cold as ice. You are in control. Simply select any of the colors from the palette to suit the systems' design. Just change it to another one using the easy to use Mystic Light APP available on PC, phone and tablet, and make your PC look & feel brand new! With 2048 different colors and 7 different LED modes, the Mystic Light provides infinite possibilities for gamers to personalize their gaming rig.

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced revenue for the fourth quarter of 2014 of $1.24 billion, operating loss of $330 million and net loss of $364 million, or $0.47 per share. Non-GAAP(1) operating income was $36 million, non-GAAP(1) net income of $2 million and breakeven non-GAAP(1) earnings per share.

"We made progress diversifying our business, ramping design wins and improving our balance sheet this past year despite challenges in our PC business," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "Annual Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue increased over 50% as customer demand for products powered by our high-performance compute and rich visualization solutions was strong. We continue to address channel headwinds in the Computing and Graphics segment and are taking steps to return it to a healthy trajectory beginning in the second quarter of 2015."

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, announces that its SD-A225 and SD-A245 Virtualization Smart Displays are the first Android-based displays to earn Citrix Ready-HDX Verified status from Citrix Systems, Inc. These award-winning, next-generation ViewSonic multi-touch smart displays come with the Citrix XenMobile enterprise mobility management solution pre-installed, to allow administrators to remotely configure and manage the Smart Displays.

ViewSonic has one of the most diverse lines of VDI products, and is a pioneer of VDI-enabled smart displays. With Citrix bestowing its Citrix Ready-HDX Verified status to the ViewSonic SD-A225 and SD-A245 Smart Display Clients, it indicates that these products have set the bar for multimedia capabilities from Android-based devices in a VDI environment. The Citrix Ready program makes it easy for customers to identify complementary products and solutions that can enhance Citrix environments.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, reports its first quarter (Q1'14) results which ended on May 31, 2013. "Revenue generated from our enterprise solutions for the first quarter more than doubled compared to the last quarter, and drove the sequential gross margin increase. Overall revenue declined about 20% sequentially, primarily due to the lack of NAND flash supply for our client SSD products," said Ralph Schmitt, CEO of OCZ Technology.

"Over the past year we have restructured the Company, which included the appointment of new leadership, reduced operating expenses, streamlined our product offerings, realigned our engineering talent, and introduced new controller silicon and firmware, new higher-end SSDs for the client market and new storage solutions for the enterprise market," added Schmitt. "Fiscal Q1 is the first quarter in which the company operated with all these particular restructuring and restatement adjustments behind us."

The Khronos Group today announced the ratification and public release of the OpenCL 2.0 provisional specification. OpenCL 2.0 is a significant evolution of the open, royalty-free standard that is designed to further simplify cross-platform, parallel programming while enabling a significantly richer range of algorithms and programming patterns to be easily accelerated. As the foundation for these increased capabilities, OpenCL 2.0 defines an enhanced execution model and a subset of the C11 and C++11 memory model, synchronization and atomic operations. The release of the specification in provisional form is to enable developers and implementers to provide feedback before specification finalization, which is expected within 6 months. The OpenCL 2.0 provisional specification and reference cards are available here.

"The OpenCL working group has combined developer feedback with emerging hardware capabilities to create a state-of-the-art parallel programming platform - OpenCL 2.0," said Neil Trevett, chair of the OpenCL working group, president of the Khronos Group and vice president of mobile content at NVIDIA. "OpenCL continues to gather momentum on both desktop and mobile devices. In addition to enabling application developers it is providing foundational, portable acceleration for middleware libraries, engines and higher-level programming languages that need to take advantage of heterogeneous compute resources including CPUs, GPUs, DSPs and FPGAs."

Z87 MPOWER and Z87 MPOWER MAX, two of MSI's top overclocker-targeted socket LGA1150 motherboards, are joined by the company's new flagship motherboard, the Z87 XPOWER. Built in the XL-ATX (345 x 264 mm) form-factor, this board gets you the best MSI has to offer, and is ideal for both CPU and VGA overclocking benches. The CPU is powered by a gargantuan 32-phase digital-PWM power supply, which draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors, in addition to the 24-pin ATX, and an optional 6-pin PCI-Express connector.

The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-3000+ memory, and a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express gen 3.0 bridge chip, which gives out four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, two of which are x16 capable, all four of which are x8-capable. One of the five x16 slots, the second one from top, is directly wired to the CPU, and plugging a graphics card on that slot will bypass the bridge-chip. This slot is ideal for when you have just one card. Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots take seat between the x16 slots, wired to the PCH. In addition to 4-way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX, the board includes Lucid Virtu MVP 2.0 software.

NVIDIA today announced that it is unleashing the full graphics potential of enterprise desktop virtualization with the availability of NVIDIA GRID vGPU integrated into Citrix XenDesktop 7. NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology addresses a challenge that has grown in recent years with the rise of employees using their own notebooks and portable devices for work. These workers have increasingly relied on desktop virtualization technologies for anytime access to computing resources, but until now this was generally used for the more standard enterprise applications. Performance and compatibility constraints had made it difficult for applications such as building information management (BIM), product-lifecycle management (PLM) and video-photo editing.

Two decades ago hardware-based graphics replaced software emulation. Desktop virtualization solutions stood alone as the only modern computing form without dedicated graphics hardware. As a result, an already busy virtualized CPU limited performance and software emulation hampered application compatibility. The situation began to improve a year ago with the introduction of the non-virtualized GPU in Citrix XenServer. But efficiency gains were limited because each user still required a dedicated GPU.

LenovoEMC Limited today announced the next generation of the award-winning LenovoEMC LifeLine operating system for its Iomega-branded network storage solutions. LifeLine 4.0, available next week as a free-of-charge download for owners of StorCenter ix and px series network storage products, includes new and improved enterprise computing and security features for easy and efficient storing, sharing and protecting of data for organizations and work groups of all sizes. LenovoEMC-branded network storage devices with LifeLine 4.0 are expected to debut in May.

"LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 improves upon our previous version of LifeLine, bringing advanced computing options and capabilities to our network storage products that organizations of all sizes can benefit from," said Eric Arcese, president and general manager, LenovoEMC Ltd. "Businesses today need rock solid, dependable, affordable and innovative network storage, and this new version of LifeLine brings those attributes together with an intuitive menu of choices that can be tailored to the needs of any organization. Existing and new customers will benefit from the latest technology embedded in the new version of LifeLine."

LucidLogix (Lucid) today announced the next generation of its GPU Virtualization software, Virtu MVP 2.0, is now available for direct sale to all gamers, videophiles and PC enthusiasts who own Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge motherboards, with an NVIDIA or AMD discrete graphic card, by download on the Lucid online shop.

"Virtu MVP allows our customers to get the maximum multimedia experience from their dual core system, while preserving energy consumption," said Offir Remez, president of Lucid. "With MVP 2.0, games simply look better and respond quickly, video encoding is faster and multi-screen computing is more manageable."

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder offering custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations is improving mobile gaming on the NOMAD series of custom gaming laptops with Lucid's Virtu MVP Mobile software that boosts gaming performance 30 percent and higher.

Lucid Virtu MVP Mobile is the only GPU virtualization software that balances power consumption and system performance by dynamically assigning and rendering media tasks to the best available graphics resource with either an integrated or discrete GPU. The software intelligently assigns tasks in real time to the best available graphics resource based on performance, power and features considerations, with no need for additional hardware.

The latest in a series of Intel Desktop Boards designed for overclocking K-series 2nd and 3rd gen Intel Core processors, the Intel DZ75ML-45K delivers flexible overclocking and Lucid* Virtu MVP at an affordable price. Additionally, Intel Desktop Boards has extended a Lucid MVP upgrade to existing Intel 7-series performance boards currently using Lucid Virtu Universal.

The Lucid MVP GPU Virtualization feature enables use of Intel QuickSync whether your monitor cable is connected to a discrete graphics card or you are using Intel HD graphics built in to the CPU. Visit the Intel Download Center to upgrade. To learn more about Lucid's enhanced gaming and visual performance offering, visit www.lucidlogix.com. Intel Desktop Boards is also the proud launch partner of Lucid Virtu MVP2.0 coming in 2013. For more information about the DZ75ML-45K, visit the product page.

Ultrabooks, despite their formidable computing power compared to netbooks, inevitably trade some of it for lower thermal/power specifications. LucidLogix feels that Ultrabook users could gain graphics processing power on demand using external graphics cards, that work in tandem with its VirtuMVP GPU virtualization technology. At IDF, the company demonstrated an external graphics card that uses 10 Gb/s Thunderbolt interface to communicate with an Ultrabook.

Lucid's external graphics card is a Thunderbolt to PCI-Express enclosure, which runs an AMD Radeon HD 6700 series GPU. With the VirtuMVP layer running, the Ultrabook uses the graphics computing power of the external graphics card to render complex graphics onto its display, which is wired to the processor's integrated graphics core. Lucid's idea of on-demand graphics compute power allows Thunderbolt-equipped Ultrabooks of all shapes and sizes to lack a discrete GPU, which adds to the device's cost, and taps its limited power and thermal-control resources. At the moment, Lucid's external graphics cards are still in development, with no concrete release date in sight. The concept is solid.

LucidLogix and ORIGIN PC today jointly launched Virtu MVP Mobile GPU virtualization software, available now with the award-winning ORIGIN EON laptops. With Virtu MVP Mobile, gamers can enjoy increased system performance, better responsiveness, tear-free gaming and reduced power utilization; unlike that of any other laptop on the market today.

"Virtu MVP Mobile gives our customers an even better competitive edge," said Kevin Wasielewski ORIGIN PC CEO and co-founder. "Crisp graphics without tearing and rapid fire response are among the many exclusive benefits they can enjoy while gaming at home or on the road."

LucidLogix (Lucid), GPU virtualization software leader, today announced that Virtu and Virtu MVP GPU virtualization product family is now found in more than 100 Intel and AMD motherboard models, setting the standard for improved integrated and discrete GPU utilization, visual quality, power management and system responsiveness.

"High quality products and great service are what Asus products are all about. Virtu MVP adds that value across our line of motherboards, allowing users to enjoy best of both Intel graphics on one hand and on the other, enjoy discrete graphics with sharpest images and highest frame rates with MVP's Virtual Vsync," said Joe Hsieh, Asus Corporate Vice President & General Manager Motherboard Business Unit & Desktop System Business Unit. "We understand the importance of a responsive immersive gaming experience and with Virtu MVP's HyperFormance, we are able to provide that for the majority of popular PC titles."

Today Atlantis Computing, a leading provider of storage optimization software for virtual servers and desktops, will unveil Atlantis ILIO FlexCloud 1.0 onstage at GigaOM Structure, one of the most influential cloud computing conferences. The new software product makes it possible for enterprises and service providers to fundamentally change the performance and economics of storage-intensive virtualized server and cloud applications like databases, big data and custom enterprise applications.

"With our success in the desktop virtualization market, we are constantly asked by customers to bring to market solutions for virtual servers that optimize storage utilization like we do for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)," said Bernard Harguindeguy, CEO of Atlantis Computing. "With the introduction of Atlantis ILIO FlexCloud 1.0, we are demonstrating how our technology has the flexibility to deliver similar performance, cost and scalability benefits to server virtualization and the cloud."