Today at MWC 2023, Lenovo unveiled its latest PC and Chromebook solutions to help embrace dispersed hybrid working styles and provide advanced features that empower users across a broad selection of requirements and needs. Encompassing a progressive and contemporary design philosophy, the latest PC solutions, including a comprehensive refresh across the ThinkPad portfolio, focus on improvements in system performance, increased use of more sustainable materials, and continued enhancements to user experience. ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 second generation Windows 11 laptops enhance key areas of hardware and software functionality to help users maintain a creative edge. ThinkPad Z13 also presents a new Flax Fiber top cover, using bio-based materials, for a unique individual look and feel. Lenovo also introduced a redesigned fourth generation ThinkPad X13 and X13 Yoga with narrower bezels, new colors, materials and features to facilitate hybrid work and mobility. The ThinkPad portfolio for 2023 is completed with fourth generation ThinkPad T14s, T14 and second generation T16 workhorse laptops along with the fourth generation ThinkPad L13, L13 Yoga, L14 and L15, designed for businesses with a wide range of mobile computing needs.

Value-conscious businesses seeking focused productivity features can select a fifth generation ThinkPad E14 with new 16:10 displays or a new 16-inch form factor in the ThinkPad E16. Frequent travellers will like the additional protection provided by the new ThinkPad Professional Sleeve, available in 13-inch and 14-inch sizes to support a broad selection of laptops. The highly versatile ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One Gen 5 Monitor offers improved audio-visual capabilities and redesigned features capable of supporting multiple work scenarios. Finally, consumers can enjoy the flexibility offered by the latest IdeaPad Duet 3i, a Windows 11 detachable laptop that seamlessly transitions between clamshell and tablet modes; or relish the ChromeOS eco-system with the latest IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook featuring a range of audio, visual, and connectivity upgrades.

MaxLinear, Inc., a leader in home gateway solutions that unlock multi-gig home connectivity, today announced that its highly-integrated AnyWAN home gateway SoC has been certified for XGS-PON and G-PON as part of the Broadband Forum BBF.247 Optical Network Unit (ONU) Certification Program. scalable quad-core CPU, packet routing accelerator for up to 30 million packets per second, and all required high-speed interfaces for home gateways and home routers. The platform supports important WAN access technologies required by telco service providers and cable MSOs, making it one of the most scalable home gateway solutions on the market. With its XFI and PCIe gen4 interfaces and the embedded 2.5GE PHYs, AnyWAN is an ideal SoC for the next generation of fixed-wireless-access gateways with 5G WAN and Wi-Fi 7.

AnyWAN SoC variants with embedded 10G PON MAC support most 10G PON standards, including XGS-PON, G-PON, and NG-PON2. The chips are well suited for next-gen Wi-Fi 7 multi-gig fiber home gateways units (HGU). "Our innovation and investment in bringing AnyWAN to market provides all service providers and cable MSOs with a cost-efficient, quicker time-to-market choice when transitioning to 10G PON networks," said Will Torgerson, Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Group for MaxLinear. "While G-PON is the fiber technology with the largest installed based today, many customers are looking to XGS-PON as a technology option."

Since 2022, DRAM suppliers have been adjusting their product mixes so as to assign more wafer input to server DRAM products while scaling back the wafer input for mobile DRAM products. This trend is driven by two reasons. First, the demand outlook is bright for the server DRAM segment. Second, the mobile DRAM segment was in significant oversupply during 2022. Moving into 2023, the projections on the growth of smartphone shipments and the increase in the average DRAM content of smartphones remain quite conservative. Therefore, DRAM suppliers intend to keep expanding the share of server DRAM in their product mixes. According to TrendForce's analysis on the distribution of the DRAM industry's total bit output for 2023, server DRAM is estimated to comprise around 37.6%, whereas mobile DRAM is estimated to comprise around 36.8%. Hence, server DRAM will formally surpass mobile DRAM in terms of the portion of the overall supply within this year.

Qualcomm Technologies' 6th generation modem-to-antenna solution is the first ready to support 5G Advanced, the next phase of 5G. It introduces a new architecture, a new software suite and includes numerous world's first features to push the boundaries of connectivity including coverage, latency, power efficiency and mobility. Snapdragon X75 technologies and innovations empower OEMs to create next generation experiences across segments including smartphones, mobile broadband, automotive, compute, industrial IoT, fixed wireless access and 5G private networks.

Snapdragon X75 is the first Modem-RF System with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator, Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2, enabling over 2.5 times better AI performance compared to Gen 1 and introduces Qualcomm 5G AI Suite Gen 2 with new AI-powered optimizations to achieve better speeds, coverage, mobility, link robustness and location accuracy. The Qualcomm 5G AI Suite features advanced AI-based capabilities including world's first sensor-assisted mmWave beam management and AI-enhanced GNSS Location Gen 2, which uniquely optimize Snapdragon X75 for superior 5G performance.

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ), an industry leader in quantum computing, today announced plans to open the first known dedicated quantum computing manufacturing facility in the U.S., located in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. The new facility will house IonQ's growing R&D and manufacturing teams, as they develop systems to meet continued customer demand. With public support from U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) - an early proponent of the CHIPS and Science Act - and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, US representative from Washington's 1st congressional district,today's announcement is part of IonQ's broader intent to invest $1 billion through expansion in the Pacific Northwest over the next 10 years.

"IonQ making the decision to open the first ever quantum computing manufacturing facility in the country right here in Bothell is a very big deal—and it's great news for Washington state," said Senator Murray. "Opening this facility will absolutely help ensure Washington state continues to be a leader in innovation and cutting-edge technologies—but it also means jobs that will be an investment in our families and their futures. These are the kinds of investments that happen when we pass legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act to invest in American manufacturing and build the economy of the future right here at home."

Ventana Micro Systems Inc. today announced its Veyron family of high performance RISC-V processors. The Veyron V1 is the first member of the family, and the highest performance RISC-V processor available today. It will be offered in the form of high performance chiplets and IP. Ventana Founder and CEO Balaji Baktha will make the public announcement during his RISC-V Summit keynote today.

The Veyron V1 is the first RISC-V processor to provide single thread performance that is competitive with the latest incumbent processors for Data Center, Automotive, 5G, AI, and Client applications. The Veyron V1 efficient microarchitecture also enables the highest single socket performance among competing architectures.

HaptX Inc., the leading provider of realistic haptic technology, today announced the availability of pre-orders of the company's new HaptX Gloves G1, a ground-breaking haptic device optimized for the enterprise metaverse. HaptX has engineered HaptX Gloves G1 with the features most requested by HaptX customers, including improved ergonomics, multiple glove sizes, wireless mobility, new and improved haptic functionality, and multiplayer collaboration, all priced as low as $4,500 per pair - a fraction of the cost of the award-winning HaptX Gloves DK2.

"With HaptX Gloves G1, we're making it possible for all organizations to leverage our lifelike haptics," said Jake Rubin, Founder and CEO of HaptX. "Touch is the cornerstone of the next generation of human-machine interface technologies, and the opportunities are endless." HaptX Gloves G1 leverages advances in materials science and the latest manufacturing techniques to deliver the first haptic gloves that fit like a conventional glove. The Gloves' digits, palm, and wrist are soft and flexible for uninhibited dexterity and comfort. Available in four sizes (Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large), these Gloves offer the best fit and performance for all adult hands. Inside the Gloves are hundreds of microfluidic actuators that physically displace your skin, so when you touch and interact with virtual objects, the objects feel real.

Apple today announced the next generation of Apple TV 4K—more powerful, entertaining, and affordable than ever, and offering impressive cinematic quality. Driven by the A15 Bionic chip that delivers faster performance and more fluid gameplay, the new Apple TV 4K features endless entertainment options for everyone to enjoy on the biggest screen in the home. HDR10+ support joins Dolby Vision on Apple TV 4K, so users can watch their favorite movies and TV shows in the best quality possible across more TVs. Running tvOS, the powerful and intuitive OS for the living room, and featuring the popular Siri Remote, Apple TV 4K simplifies the way users discover and enjoy their favorite content. Its seamless integration with other Apple devices and services magically transforms the living room in different ways for the entire family, while also adding convenience as a smart home hub.

The new Apple TV 4K is available in two configurations: Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi), which offers 64 GB of storage; and Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi + Ethernet), which offers support for Gigabit Ethernet for fast networking and streaming, Thread mesh networking protocol to connect even more smart home accessories, and twice the storage for apps and games (128 GB). Customers can order the new Apple TV 4K with Siri Remote today at a new starting price of $129, with availability beginning Friday, November 4.

Apple today announced the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip, delivering the ultimate combination of portability, versatility, and unbelievable performance. The new iPad Pro features a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience and superfast wireless connectivity, along with the world's most advanced mobile display, pro cameras, Face ID, Thunderbolt, and a four-speaker audio system. New features in iPadOS 16—including Stage Manager, full external display support, desktop-class apps, and Reference Mode—take pro workflows on iPad even further. Enabled by its advanced hardware and iPadOS 16, iPad Pro has an incredible ecosystem of powerful pro apps unlike any other device of its kind. The new iPad Pro is available to order starting today, and in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.

"The next-generation iPad Pro pushes the boundaries of what's possible on iPad, bringing even more versatility, power, and portability to the ultimate iPad experience," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Powered by the M2 chip, the new iPad Pro features incredible performance and the most advanced technologies, including a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience, ProRes video capture, superfast wireless connectivity, and powerful iPadOS 16 features. There's nothing else like it."

XPG, a fast-growing provider of systems, components, and peripherals for gamers, Esports pros, and tech enthusiasts, today announces a new series of high performance power supply units. With the newly announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, end users who plan on updating to these latest graphics cards will now need power supply units with a new type of connector. XPG actively works to provide the most up-to-date technology in all their products and happily upgrades/updates product specifications to meet the latest standards where possible. In order to meet the needs of gamers looking to upgrade soon, XPG has developed a new series of power supplies that are both ATX 3.0 compliant and PCIE 5.0 ready.

The 12VHPWR (12 + 4 pin) connector is now required for the next generation of top-tier gaming performance. Meaning you will need a compatible PSU to upgrade. In light of this new connector type and the updated Intel ATX 3.0 specifications, XPG CYBERCORE II series models will come equipped with this new connector type and an updated internal platform.

Towards the latter half of August, multiple EVGA employees involved in technical marketing and engineering had let us know privately that they were leaving the company for other ventures. When pushed further, several hinted towards some decisions being made by EVGA's management, including CEO Andrew Han, that would jeopardize their future. Some even went far enough to say they would share more in a few weeks time about how they felt exactly about their time there, the various issues that kept them from doing their best, and also that at least a couple of ex-employees were let go. TechPowerUp was doing due diligence in collecting the facts while keeping emotions aside from contacts who were understandably not in the best of moods, and one thing common across the board was there was something major coming up dealing with the EVGA GPU product line.

Today EVGA decided to throw a massive curve ball by formally announcing the company is canceling its plans to carry the next generation of graphics cards. Given EVGA's revenue sheets point to nearly 80% contribution from being an NVIDIA add-in card partner, this effectively also means an end to a long partnership with NVIDIA. The company's CEO confirmed as much to a few media channels citing poor margins and a challenging, stressful relationship that was no longer fruitful. There are no plans for EVGA to partner with AMD or Intel at this time when it comes to graphics cards and the company stressed they will continue to sell and support current-gen GPUs having retained enough units for RMA purposes too.

Opening a new era of neural graphics that marries AI and simulation, NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA RTX 6000 workstation GPU, based on its new NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. With the new NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU delivering real-time rendering, graphics and AI, designers and engineers can drive cutting-edge, simulation-based workflows to build and validate more sophisticated designs. Artists can take storytelling to the next level, creating more compelling content and building immersive virtual environments. Scientists, researchers and medical professionals can accelerate the development of life-saving medicines and procedures with supercomputing power on their workstations—all at up to 2-4x the performance of the previous-generation RTX A6000.

Designed for neural graphics and advanced virtual world simulation, the RTX 6000, with Ada generation AI and programmable shader technology, is the ideal platform for creating content and tools for the metaverse with NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise. Incorporating the latest generations of render, AI and shader technologies and 48 GB of GPU memory, the RTX 6000 enables users to create incredibly detailed content, develop complex simulations and form the building blocks required to construct compelling and engaging virtual worlds.

Last year Cooler Master unveiled a milestone in the history of contemporary technology: the very first small form factor power supply in the market with 850 W, V SFX Gold series. Today, Cooler Master takes the successor and pushes the limit to the maximum. Introducing V SFX Platinum, a series of small form factor power supply focused on high density and maximum power. While increasing the efficiency rate from Gold to Platinum, we also added ATX 3.0 and PCI-e Gen 5 connector so even with the Mini-ITX build; this will be your last stop when choosing the right power supply.

High Density / Performance-Focused
The V SFX Platinum comes with 2 different wattages: 1100 W and 1300 W targeting Mini-ITX system builders who wants to go bold with their setup, but doesn't have enough juice from the power supply. It also comes with a free SFX-ATX bracket that unlocks the limitations between each form factors, giving end-users more freedom and potential builds in the future. The V SFX Platinum are built with Full Bridge LLC design, quiet 92 mm silent fan and 100% Japanese capacitors. By adding PCIe Gen 5 connector, V SFX Platinum can unlock it's true potential and power up all Nvidia RTX 40 series GPU in the future.

The demand for data is insatiable, from 5G to the cloud to smart cities. As a society we want more autonomy, information to fuel our decisions and habits, and connection - to people, stories, and experiences.

To address these demands, the cloud infrastructure of tomorrow will need to handle the coming data explosion and the effective processing of evermore complex workloads … all while increasing power efficiency and minimizing carbon footprint. It's why the industry is increasingly looking to the performance, power efficiency, specialized processing and workload acceleration enabled by Arm Neoverse to redefine and transform the world's computing infrastructure.

The recent 80 Gbps USB4 Version 2.0 standard looks set to get company from Thunderbolt at 80 Gbps in the not too distant future, as Intel has demoed its next generation Thunderbolt hardware to the media during its Technology Tour 2022 in Israel. It doesn't appear that Intel showed too much of the upcoming technology, but the company did apparently show it running at 80 Gbps, or if you want to be picky, two times 40 Gbps in dual link mode, much in the same way USB4 Version 2.0 will operate.

According to Tom's Hardware, Intel hasn't set the marketing name in stone quite yet, so it's not clear what Intel will be calling its next generation of Thunderbolt. What is clear is that Intel will continue to deliver on its own Thunderbolt products, despite USB4 having almost feature parity with Thunderbolt, apart from some Intel platform specific features. What is also unknown, is a potential availability date for Intel's next generation of Thunderbolt, but an educated guess will be before USB4 Version 2.0 launches.

Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced "together we advance_PCs," a livestream premiere to unveil next generation AMD PC products. Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su, CTO and EVP Mark Papermaster, and other AMD executives will present details on the latest "Zen 4" architecture that powers upcoming AMD Ryzen processors and the all new AM5 platform built around the latest technologies including DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, all designed to drive a new era of performance desktop PCs.

The show will premiere at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, August 29, on the AMD YouTube channel. A replay can be accessed a few hours after the conclusion of the event at AMD.com/Ryzen.

Following the recent passage of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act last week, GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF), a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced they are more than doubling their existing strategic global long-term semiconductor manufacturing agreement previously entered into by GF's and Qualcomm's respective subsidiaries. Today's announcement secures wafer supply and commitments to support U.S.-based manufacturing through capacity expansion at GF's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility, in Malta, New York.

The announcement was made in Washington D.C. at a CEO Summit co-hosted by GF, Ford Motor Company, and Applied Materials, which included National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainability Dr. William LaPlante, and National Security Council Senior Director for Technology & National Security, Tarun Chhabra underscoring the importance of domestic manufacturing to national and economic security. The Summit included CEOs and senior leaders from across the semiconductor supply chain from tool and wafer manufacturers to key suppliers to end users of chips manufactured in the U.S.

-AvicenaTech Corp., the leader in microLED-based chip-to-chip interconnects, today announced that the company has secured $25M in Series A funding from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Cerberus Capital Management, Clear Ventures, and Micron Ventures to drive the development of products based on Avicena's breakthrough photonic I/O solution. "We believe that Avicena technology can be transformational in unlocking compute-to-memory chip-to-chip high-speed interconnects. Such technology can be central to supporting future disaggregated architectures and distributed high-performance computing (HPC) systems," said Marco Chisari, EVP of Samsung Electronics and Head of the Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center.

"We are excited to participate in this round at Avicena," said Amir Salek, Senior Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management and former Head of silicon for Google Infrastructure and Cloud. "Avicena has a highly differentiated technology addressing one of the main challenges in modern computer architecture. The technology offered by Avicena meets the needs for scaling future HPC and cloud compute networks and covers applications in conventional datacenter and 5G cellular networking."

NVIDIA's next generation of graphics cards, codenamed RTX 40 series, Ada Lovelace, is expected to arrive sometime in October. However, the latest information from the YouTube channel "Moore's Law Is Dead" suggests that NVIDIA could postpone the arrival of the new GPU generation to December. Why, you might be wondering? The report claims that the current GPU market is flooded with used GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs. Thus, NVIDIA could postpone the availability of the latest GPUs to keep the demand high and ensure that the market is searching for additional graphics cards.

Retailers are experiencing smaller demand as the used GPU market is full of devices used for cryptocurrency mining, and the recent crypto crash has helped the situation. What we could see is NVIDIA announcing Ada Lovelace GPUs in October, with availability arriving later in December. Of course, these are just the current industry rumors, and we are yet to see how the market and NVIDIA will respond.

LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of aluminium chassis and PC accessories, premieres the LIAN LI 2022 DIGITAL EXPO 2.0 at 9 am EST on YouTube (here). The 2-part video series reveals new prototypes of 3 cases, 4 fans, and an All-In-One liquid cooler. The new cases include the LANCOOL 216, DAN Cases A3 m-ATX, and the highly anticipated O11D EVO XL. LIAN LI also presents the next generation UNI FANs with SL120 V2, SL140 V2, AL120 V2, and AL140, including an update of the UNI FAN P28. And the show closes with a new 100% LIAN LI design All-In-One liquid cooler.

The LANCOOL 216 is a mid-tower with excellent cooling and is configurable for air or All-In-One liquid cooling. The rotatable I/O shield enables Upper Motherboard or Air Cooling mode, where the motherboard can be installed higher for extra room for vertical GPUs and larger CPU tower coolers. By rotating the I/O shield 180 degrees, it enables the Lower Motherboard or All-In-One Liquid Cooling mode to support thicker radiators and lengths of up to 360 mm. To maximize the air intake and exhaust, an external rear fan 120 mm bracket can be installed below the GPU IO ports, and a cover plate can be added on the top to seal off unnecessary openings to reduce air pressure loss.

ASRock has released UEFI/BIOS updates for at least 47 of its 600-series chipset based motherboards, which will add support for the next generation of CPUs from Intel. The new CPUs are of course Intel's 13th gen Core CPU's, codenamed Raptor Lake, even though ASRock doesn't specifically mention this anywhere in the text on its portal site. We're expecting to see similar announcements from the other motherboard makers in due time. ASRock doesn't go into any kind of details as to which CPUs are supported and the company doesn't appear to have updated its CPU support lists yet, which is a shame, but not entirely unexpected, since the Raptor Lake CPUs aren't expected to launch until later this year.

However, ASRock has implemented what the company calls Auto Driver Installer or ADI in this UEFI/BIOS update for the boards and this is likely to be an unpopular addition, as it means drivers will be automatically be downloaded and installed if the system is connected to the internet. Presumably there will be an option to disable this feature, but it appears to be enabled by default, which has proven to be an unpopular option when other companies have done it. Admittedly it could be a handy feature during a new build or OS reinstall, but it's also a potential attack vector for malware.

Intel Labs announces a significant advancement in its integrated photonics research - the next frontier in increasing communication bandwidth between compute silicon in data centers and across networks. The latest research features industry-leading advancements in multiwavelength integrated optics, including the demonstration of an eight-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) laser array that is fully integrated on a silicon wafer and delivers excellent output power uniformity of +/- 0.25 decibel (dB) and wavelength spacing uniformity of ±6.5% that exceed industry specifications.

"This new research demonstrates that it's possible to achieve well-matched output power with uniform and densely spaced wavelengths. Most importantly, this can be done using existing manufacturing and process controls in Intel's fabs, thereby ensuring a clear path to volume production of the next-generation co-packaged optics and optical compute interconnect at scale." -Haisheng Rong, senior principal engineer at Intel Labs

Intel has allowed the media to get a closer look at the next generation of silicon that will power millions of systems in years to come during its private Vision event. PC Watch, a Japanese tech media, managed to get some shots of the upcoming Meteor Lake, Sapphire Rapids, and Ponte Vecchio processors. Starting with Meteor Lake, Intel has displayed two packages for this processor family. The first one is the ultra-compact, high-density UP9 package used for highly compact mobile systems, and it is made out of silicon with minimal packaging to save space. The second one is a traditional design with more oversized packaging, designed for typical laptop/notebook configurations.

E Ink, the originator, pioneer, and global commercial leader in digital paper technology, today announced the launch of E Ink Gallery 3, a next generation of color ePaper for the eReader and eNote markets. E Ink Gallery 3 is based on the E Ink ACeP Advanced Color ePaper platform. In this platform, a full-color gamut is achieved through a four particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and white, which allows a full color gamut at each pixel.

In Gallery 3, the black and white update time has been improved to 350 milliseconds (ms), the fast color mode is 500 ms, standard color mode is 750-1000 ms and best color is achieved at 1500 ms. This is a substantial improvement over the first generation of E Ink Gallery, which had a black and white update time of two seconds and color updates of ten seconds. In addition, Gallery 3 will have an improved resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) versus the earlier 150ppi and an operating temperature of 0-50 degrees Celsius, on par with black and white eReaders.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced the first clock buffers and multiplexers that meet stringent PCIe Gen6 specifications. Renesas, the industry's undisputed leader in timing solutions, is offering 11 new clock buffers and 4 new multiplexers. The new devices, which also support and provide extra margin for PCIe Gen5 implementations, complement Renesas' low-jitter 9SQ440, 9FGV1002 and 9FGV1006 clock generators to offer customers a complete PCIe Gen6 timing solution for data center/cloud computing, networking and high-speed industrial applications. The PCIe Gen6 standard supports extremely high data rates of 64 GT/s while requiring very low clock jitter performance of less than 100fs RMS. Renesas' new RC190xx clock buffers and RC192xx multiplexers have PCIe Gen6 additive jitter specs of only 4fs RMS, making them virtually noiseless, and thereby future-proofing customer designs for the next generation of industry standards.

"PCIe Gen6 timing will be at the heart of new equipment in data centers, high-speed networking and other applications," said Zaher Baidas, Vice President of the Timing Products Division at Renesas. "As we have done for preceding generations, Renesas is providing customers with the first timing solution to enable these new, higher-performance systems. Our customers know that we have the technical expertise and market knowledge to ensure that their products will be able to meet future requirements as well." "By delivering the first discrete timing solution for PCIe Gen6, Renesas is enabling customers to develop the next-generation of high-performance systems," said Rich Wawrzyniak, Principal Analyst for Semico Research. "It will be interesting to see the innovative implementations that result from this new capability, especially when considering how solutions for the emerging Chiplet market are starting to evolve, with the need for increasing speed and bandwidth as an underlying constant."