Trade Shows
One of the more subtle trends at this year's Computex was that the majority of high-end motherboards now come equipped with a 5GbE network controller. At present, this might be considered a limited benefit as 5GbE and 10GbE switches and routers are still pretty expensive. But Realtek is planning on tackling the issue from both ends, as the company is preparing a hardware platform for sub-$100 5GbE switches. Realtek’s quad-port 5GbE switch platform consists of five key chips: one RTL9303 switch system-on-chip, and four RTL8251B 5GbE physical interfaces (PHYs). The chips are accompanied by various other components, such as power management ICs, but in general it relies solely on in-house developed components, which is why it can be made so cheap. RealTek's platform is...
Spotted at Supercomputing 2019: A 256 GB Gen-Z Memory Module
As a millennial, everything in the media that ‘Gen Z’ does often gets lumped into the millennial category. Thankfully there’s another type of Gen-Z in the world: the cache...
11 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 11/29/2019New NVIDIA GPU Variant Found at Supercomputing 2019: Tesla V100S
NVIDIA announced a number of things at Supercomputing, such as CUDA on Arm. Despite the show being the major hub event for high-performance computing/supercomputers, it isn’t often the location...
28 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 11/22/2019Arm TechCon 2019 Keynote Live Blog (Starts at 10am PT/17:00 UTC)
Kicking off today is Arm's annual technical conference, Arm TechCon. Now in its 15th year, the company is looking to continue their long, successful run in the IP market...
15 by Ryan Smith on 10/8/2019Netgear Expands 802.11ax Portfolio with Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System and Nighthawk EAX80 Extender
As part of IFA 2019, Netgear has a number of new announcements across different product lines. The wireless networking products are of particular interest to us. We had attended...
21 by Ganesh T S on 9/6/2019All Ryzen: Q&A with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su
The biggest news of the annual Computex trade show came from AMD: the company is poised to launch its next generation Zen 2 microarchitecture, along with updates to its...
84 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 6/26/2019Antec’s Blazer GT Case: A Vertical or Horizontal Chassis
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, both tower cases and lay flat desktop chassis were fairly common. Eventually tower cases prevailed, whereas desktops that could be used...
4 by Anton Shilov on 6/25/2019MSI & ZOTAC with New Double-Slot Low-Profile GeForce GTX 1650 GPUs
Low-profile graphics cards are primarily used by owners of small form-factor desktops who want to have a more or less decent graphics that can run casual video games. GPU...
24 by Anton Shilov on 6/25/2019Noctua Shows Off Updated 'D Series' 140mm CPU Coolers: NH-D15 Gets A Successor
During Computex 2019, Noctua announced its plans to update its fabled D series of CPU coolers with a new design. The new, currently-unnamed coolers incorporate an extra heat pipe...
38 by Gavin Bonshor on 6/25/2019Silicon Power Goes Gaming: Unleashing XPower Turbine RGB Memory & SSDs
Silicon Power is best known for its reasonably-priced storage devices as well as various accessories for PCs and smartphones. But in an attempt to grow further, the company recently...
17 by Anton Shilov on 6/24/2019ZOTAC’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ArcticStorm: A Single-Slot Water Cooled GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Ultra-high-end graphics cards these days all seem to either come with a very large triple fan cooler, or more exotically, a hybrid cooling system based around a large heatsink...
13 by Anton Shilov on 6/24/2019Silicon Motion’s SM8108: A Next-Gen Enterprise SSD Controller w/ Dual DRAM & 3D QLC Support
Having secured strong positions on the market for consumer SSDs, Silicon Motion is now after the enterprise SSD market. At Computex, the company demonstrated a prototype of an SSD...
7 by Anton Shilov on 6/24/2019An Interview with AMD’s Forrest Norrod: Naples, Rome, Milan, & Genoa
There’s no getting away from the fact that AMD’s big revenue potential exists in the server space. While the glitz and the glamor is all about the Ryzen, the...
49 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 6/24/2019Spotted at Computex: ZOTAC’s Mek Mini Prebuilt PC Goes Pink
Having launched their gaming-focused Mek Mini, Mek Ultra, and VR Go 2.0 computers over the past year, ZOTAC can now address virtually all segments of gaming PC market. But...
18 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2019Phison Demonstrates Turnkey SSDs Based on 3D QLC NAND
3D QLC NAND promises to become a significant phenomenon on the consumer SSD market thanks to its relatively low cost per gigabyte, further pushing down already dropping SSD prices...
12 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2019ADATA Demonstrates HD830 Ultra-Rugged HDDs
There are many reasons why external storage devices are gaining traction these days, so storage vendors have been aiming to expand their product lineups and offer storage solutions that...
12 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2019InWin’s Alice: A Unique Chassis Made of Fabric and Plastic
Over the past few years makers of PC cases have tried virtually all materials to make their boxes: aluminum, steel, glass, various plastics, you name it. In an attempt...
53 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2019A Super Fanless Chassis from TureMetal: For DIY & 0 db Workstations
High-performance and DIY desktop computers use either sophisticated air or liquid cooling systems. While there are passively cooled PCs, they typically are either proprietary or work with a limited...
51 by Anton Shilov on 6/20/2019PowerColor's External Behemoth: The 750 Watt TBX-750FA eGFX Box, With 100 W Power Delivery
Tul, the parent company of PowerColor, currently has two external graphics (eGFX) boxes for high-end graphics cards, as well as low-power miniature eGFX solutions. Both sides of the coin...
18 by Anton Shilov on 6/20/2019Phison Readies PS2251-17: A USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Controller for External SSDs
At this year's Computex trade show, Phison revealed that it is working on a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 controller for external SSDs. Dubbed the PS2251-17 (U17), the company expects...
8 by Anton Shilov on 6/19/2019Realtek Demonstrates RTD2893: A Platform for 8K Ultra HD TVs
Just like with any other major transitions, the shift to 8K Ultra HD TVs will require not only new display panels (and even new display technologies), new cables, and...
23 by Anton Shilov on 6/19/2019